Holy Trinity v Newark Town

Holy Trinity 0 Newark Town 3

It was noticeably cold Sunday morning on Balderton playing fields, only a day for the bravest of supporters, possibly even mad dogs and a few English men.

For Town it was vitally important that they maintained their winning ways against a Trinity side that surprisingly sit on the bottom of the Premier league.

The playing surface was muddy and in places uneven that often limited the passing of the ball along the pitch surface this resulted in players from both sides lifting the ball making twenty yard passes this in-turn interrupted the possibility of the fast flowing play making the game seem scrappy at times.

In the first half Newark probably had the majority of the possession but Trinity nevertheless had their chances and could have scored at least a couple if it had not been for the luck of the Town and the reliability of Anthony Richardson in goal. With twenty minutes of the fist half gone a pass to Bobby Lee was made to the right of the penalty area a shot from Bobby from twenty yards was then deflected by a defender into the net 0-1.

HT 0-1.

Like the first half early chances were squandered by both sides with Trinity's Ben Ginnelly proving a constant threat, a player that was successfully marshalled by Lewis Poole. It was great to see after some absence James Ellwood playing right back a player that reads the game so well that you might imagine he could almost play quality football with his eyes closed.

For Town two players returning after injury came onto the field of play with just fifteen minutes remaining and both had positive impact on the final result. The ever jiving Louis Cree was, in the last quarter of the game, to be found more often on the left wing, a position he appears to relish. Two crosses from the far left by Lois were delivered inch perfect to the far post where the Alan Clarke (Known as Sniffer to his Leeds team mates in the 80s) of Sunday football one of the two late substitute, Jimmy Rusby, was waiting, one cross on the 77 minute resulted in a cool header home, was followed on 86 minutes by a second, a good shot with the side foot and at an angle into the net. As Jimmy said when leaving the pitch after the game, '' not bad a hat-trick in 20 minutes of play'' – having scored one the previous week after coming on as substitute also in that game, with only minutes remaining. A remarkable recovery after suffering only last season a badly broken leg. Well doe Jimmy. The second player making his mark on Sunday after injury was the Captain marvellous Luke Parsons he immediately strengthen the central defence blocking nearly all of Holy Trinity's attempts to attack whilst making some excellent long telling passes that increased the frequency of the Towns attacks.

0-3

Whilst the Town spirit may have appeared because of the sodden pitch and cold easterly wind somewhat subdued, nothing could be more different than that shared in the changing rooms in recent weeks. It seems that the town might be releasing a Christmas record as the singing and dancing talent runs deep in the squad. In the last couple of weeks we have seen Louis Cree rapping, George Paling singing Kick-Push, obviously his favourite style of play, by Lupe Fiasco, and this week a 1976 Starland Vocal band song, 'afternoon delight' was serenaded to the boys in blue by Sean Fulcher. Sean it seems, may have found his fathers old record collection, so shortly we might expect a rendition of Bing Crosby's famous White Christmas made famous by the film of 1954.

Well done Newark Town you should remain safely, with or without snow, top of the Premier League at Christmas and at the end of 2016 not a bad effort after only gaining promotion this year. Thoughts no doubt will be on winning the Notts Cup in 2017 and shortly we are to play a Division 1 Nottingham side in the third round, Woodborough Celtic. It could be another afternoon delight as kick-off in a couple of weeks time will be 11am for this away game.