Monday 6 November 2023

Back to Winning Ways!

On a wet and generally miserable Saturday 4th November, Handsworth and Wombwell Main finally completed their County Senior Cup 2nd Round game. The game was played at Olivers Mount because the pitch at Wombwell was still unfit.

The Ambers ran out 7-2 winners although Wombwell gave a pretty good account of themselves. They play their games in the County Senior League, Premier Division which is 2 levels below Handsworth so a win for The Ambers was anticipated.

Handsworth scored first through a Jonno Williams free-kick but Wombwell were level within a minute when a heavily defected strike beat Handsworth keeper Dylan Parkin.

Skipper Ozzie Radford restored the lead with the last kick of the first half and two quick fire goals early in the 2nd half more or less knocked the stuffing out of Wombwell and Handsworth coasted to a fairly comfortable win in the end.

Read Ian Robinson's match report for a more thorough description of the action.

https://www.pitchero.com/clubs/handsworthfc/teams/126071/match-centre/0-5785683/report 

and my photos are here:

https://www.pitchero.com/clubs/handsworthfc/photos/2023-11-04-wombwell-main-27-ambers-senior-cup-rd2-1081370.html

It was good to see Club Captain Ozzie Radford play his first full 90 minutes in around 3 months. A frustrating injury has kept him on the sidelines. He performed very well although he admitted to cramping up in the last 5 or 10 minutes but he was determined to get through a full game.


Skipper Oz Radford obviously "bouncing" to be back!!

The other high spot of the day came when with 15 minutes left, Handsworth gave a first team debut to 16-year old goalkeeper Tom Hill. He came on as a sub for Dylan Parkin and became the youngest ever player for The Ambers first team. Tom has been involved with the first team for some time now, his primary job being to warm up the keepers prematch, both home and away. Managers Jon Froggat and Mark Ward rewarded his hard work and dedication by formally signing him to the first team squad a couple of weeks ago.


Tom Hill leaves the pitch at the end of the game - I hear he's still grinning from ear to ear!

Tom has come through the Handsworth Junior set up. He's a great future prospect and was naturally "over the moon" to get on the pitch.

Next up is a League Cup tie against Eccleshill. That game takes place on Wednesday 8th November at Olivers Mount and it'll be a tough one. We've played Eccleshill twice in the league the season, winning 2-0 at their place and 2-1 at ours so they'll be looking for revenge!

There's not much else to report from the 3 days since my last blog entry. We're hoping to have our first bird-watching session in about 4 years at RSPB Old Moor, Wath upon Dearne tomorrow. We were members of the RSPB until lockdowns stopped our visits to the Reserves so we ceased membership. Now that lockdowns are done with, we've decided to rejoin the organisation. I'm quite looking forward to photographing something other than football to be honest. Just hope the forecast for a bright, dry day is correct.

We've also had confirmation that in early December, our son is to make a short visit to see us from his home in Rotterdam. Naturally, we're really looking forward to that! 

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