Newark Town 5 – 0 Dearne & District

Newark Town 5 – 0 Dearne & District
The quality of the squad put together by new boss Nathan Arnold was amply demonstrated by an outstanding display against their South Yorkshire opposition who had beaten Harworth Colliery in their opening match. There was one change from the side that narrowly lost at Thorne, Arnold replacing George Stainfield while there was a place for Lewis Chambers on the bench.
The Blues couldn’t have got off to a better start, scoring after just 58 seconds and before an opposition player had touched the ball, Jake Hardy firing across keeper Dring from an acute angle. For much of the first period Dearne were chasing shadows as they struggled to find an answer to Town’s fast paced passing movements. Sid Costa, who exploited the acres of space wide on the right played in Mark Faflik, whose shot was deflected behind. With 16 minutes played Arnold fed Ben Wallace who saw his goalbound shot palmed over by the keeper, the resulting corner headed just wide by Rhys Lewis. With Town totally in control, it came as no surprise when they scored a second on 24 minutes. A low ball in from the right found Arnold whose shot on the turn took a deflection which beat Dring. Four minutes later a beautiful through ball from Faflik found a gap in the Dearne defence allowing Hardy to finish from close range. Dearne’s first shot in anger came on 32 minutes but Jones’ long range effort caused Harry Haywood no problems.
Kieran Job replaced Hardy at the front at half time, The first ten minutes of the second half saw the visitors enjoy a spell of possession but there was little threat to the Town goal and on the hour Town went further ahead when a low ball into the area caused panic in the defence, Ben Sharpe getting the final touch in a crowded goalmouth. Chambers replace Arnold midway through the half and made an immediate impact giving the hard- pressed defence more problems. Dearne were awarded a free kick on the edge of the Town penalty area for a handling offence, and when it was cleared, the action swiftly moved to the other end where Chambers just beat the keeper to the ball to guide the ball home. Dring redeemed himself by making excellent saves from Job and Jonny Wiles in the dying seconds, but Newark were worthy winners and will hope to recreate this form on Saturday when they travel to Kiveton Miners Welfare.
Richard Lane