Town discover goal mine at Welbeck.

Saturday's game was remarkable in that all nine goals came from players who had never previously scored for the first team. With Luke Parsons missing, the captain’s armband passed to JC McDonald, who rose splendidly to the occasion, and there was a first start for Danny Lee.
Playing with a more orthodox formation than that which came to grief at Thoresby last week, Town took immediate control, Reece Self forcing an early save from keeper Julian Stevens, and the overlapping George Pearce shooting narrowly past the post. After a three minute hold-up while the only serviceable ball was retrieved from the scene of dereliction where the colliery stood, the Blues short passing game, which was perhaps a little overdone on occasion, gave them a huge amount of possession, but no end result, Chris Dobbie coming closest as his shot was cleared off the line after an Alex Hales free kick was nodded on by Arron Martin. Welbeck were conceding numerous free kicks, most resulting more from clumsiness than malice, but despite Hales’ excellently flighted deliveries, the game remained scoreless. However it was only a matter of time before things changed and the deadlock was finally broken on 35 minutes, Lee’s ball in from the left being headed back across by Dobbie for George Paling to fire home his first goal for Town in his 88th game. The floodgates were now open, and three minutes later, Pearce supplied the cross and Lee opened his account. Within a minute it was three, Lee again the scorer after Stevens had pulled off a remarkable save with his feet from a Martin shot. On the stroke of half time Paling was the supplier as Martin’s shot struck the base of a post.
Chris Riley was called into action for almost the first time in the opening moments of the second half, twice going down well to collect shots from Ashley Farquaharson. Dobbie was unfortunate to see the ball run away from him after a probing ball from Self, while at the other end Riley showed that despite his role of spectator for long periods, his concentration wasn’t flagging as he pulled off a terrific save to push Craig Taylor’s shot over the bar. Goal number four came from the penalty spot after Mark Caldwell handled a Sam Wilford shot on the line, surprisingly escaping punishment from referee Bremmer. Lee stepped up confidently to complete a highly encouraging hat trick, he and Dobbie then making way for James Munson and Sam Bagworth. Bagworth was immediately in action, narrowly failing to reach a piercing ball from McDonald. Welbeck were amassing several yellow cards, one going to Dan Munson for a foul on his brother James! A second penalty for handball, this one more debatable, came on 74 minutes, Hales stepping up for this one, and two minutes later, he added a second, his shot from Martin’s corner going in via a post. A late flurry of goals saw Martin finish with a close range header after Caldwell had directed a Self cross towards his own goal. Stevens pulled off a superb one-handed save to keep out a stinging shot from Wilford, but was beaten twice more in stoppage time. Self was again the provider, Hales the finisher, his header completing a second hat trick. Paling doubled his tally in the 94th minute, but Welbeck had the last word, Stef Frost launching a long range shot which cleared Riley, a gesture rather than a consolation.
Newark did what they had to, the goal difference received a welcome boost, but you had to feel some sympathy for the opposition, for whom results like this have become a fact of life.