Dale Park 1-2 App Frod-Saints

Dale Park's title hopes are all but over after losing to league leaders App-Frod at Winterton. A last minute pull out by Connor Durnian meant Dale Park were down to 12 players and this had a big effect later on when Nick Wingate, Kris Collins, Kieren Spencer and Jordan Merrill all suffering with injuries. However the day did start well when Nick Wingate gave Park the lead after winning a 50/50 ball with the keeper, but injured himself in the process. We looked fairly tight at the back and Jack Rhodes nearly made it 2-0 just before half time but the keeper made a good save. In the second half though it became all too predictable after Jack Rhodes shot just wide after a superb run through the middle of the defence and Jack Lacey-Hatton nearly making it two nil but shot straight at the keeper with no-one able to turn in the rebound. Then just minutes after Finney made a top save and some more last ditch defending the Saints made the pressure tell after Kieren Mackay nipped in after Finney parried a long range effort. Heads then went down and it was only a matter of time before the winner came. A superb long range effort winning the game. With that went our dying title hopes. Winterton Comp have a game midweek against Fred Gough. We face Bottesford next weekend in a game that could decide who finishes second.


DP Team: Finney, Merrill, Harvey, Lacey-Hatton(C), Dawson, Ingham, Collins, Wingate(Spencer), Johnstone, Clark, Rhodes.

Scorer: Nick Wingate.

DP M.O.M: Andy Dawson
Blogger M.O.M: Ash Finney

Title Race Update

We are now heading into the season run in with everything still to play for. App-Frod Saints do currently lead the title race on 28 points- six clear of us. However a win against them tomorrow and winning the game in hand we have over them would see us level on the same amount of points. Bottesford are also still in the running they too have to play App-Frod and are currently 4 points behind with a game in hand. To top it all of next week Bottesford face us at Winterton. So it is basically three teams challenging who all still have to play each other. Our destiny is still in our own hands.... just barely. If we do manage to win our remaining four games we will at least take the title to a play off (that is presuming App Frod win there other two games after they play us). If they dropped more points and we won our four games we would be champions. Easier said than done mind.


 Below is the top three in the table.

POS.	TEAM	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS.
1	App-Frod Saints-U16	11	9	1	1	43	11	32	28
2	Bottesford Town-U16	10	8	0	2	54	11	43	24
3	Dale Park-U16	10	7	1	2	49	21	28	22

Dale Park V App Frod-Saints

On Sunday Dale Park face an App Frod-Saints side who are currently lead the title race and only have three more games to play. The season comes down to an exciting finish with three teams all in the title race and all three teams still to play each other. However so far our record against the Saints does not make good reading. Last season when in League Two they knocked us out of the divisional cup at Winterton 3-0. We also lost 2-0 earlier in the season at Brumby Hall. As for team news it appears that Ryan Reeder has decided not to carry on playing for us for the rest of the season and so will not play. Artour Johnstone and Connor Durnian are both set to return to the side. Kieren Spencer and Kris Collins both missed training this week due to illness, but both are expected to play some part. Kick off is 1 o'clock at Newport Drive Park.

Crosby Wasps 3-8 Dale Park

Dale Park completed the double over Crosby Wasps after an 8-3 goal fest at Foxhills. The day had not started well with Durnian and Reeder both missing from the squad and with Artour Johnstone suspended we were down to eleven players. Meaning the same team against Gainsborough was retained. The pitch was in poor condition at Foxhills this adding to the wind made for some difficult conditions. However Park always looked the stronger the trio of Collins, Rhodes and Clark all looking lively . With little danger at the other end it was no surprise when Rhodes slotted in the opener after Clark drew the keeper of his line and Rhodes tucked the ball away. It was two-nil not long after when Rhodes again scored the type of goal that made him look like a player right in form after Finney's long ball down field was not cleared. Lacey-Hatton then sent Clark through who was unlucky not to make it three nil, and Wingate too came close to adding the third goal. However that honour went to Kris Collins another player on the top of his game right now who chased onto Wingate's long throw and fired in a superb volley from a tight angle. The only time Crosby really threatened Finneys goal was from set pieces mainly long throw ins but, with us defending soundly the half time whistle went with us 3-0 up. The second half was a much tougher session with Dale Park having to deal with some terrible wind, and a fried up Gunness team. In all fairness though a third clean sheet of the season was harshly took away from us when a shot from the Crosby player deflected off Dawson and squeezed into the corner of the goal past Finney. Our three goal lead was restored when Merrill's long ball found Collins who scored one of the day's best goals when he chipped the keeper after going past the defender. Clark who had another top game then got our fifth goal when he finished coolly past the keeper after good build up play. The sixth goal came Rhodes got his hat-trick after powerfully beating the keeper, and Wingate then made it 7-1 with his first goal of 2011. Crosby did manage to sneak in a couple more goals towards the end of the game the first coming after they broke neatly from midfield to finish past Finney, and they then snuck a third when a corner kick got caught in the wind and flew past everyone at the front post and was so nearly cleared off the line by Spencer, but the goal stood making it 7-3. Park went home on a happy note when Collins got his second hat-trick of the season eventually scoring by firing the ball in from a yard out, after a huge mix up at the back between Crosby Wasps' keeper and defender. The day got even better when news later broke that Brigg Town had beaten league leaders Bottesford 3-1 at the Rec Ground to put us firmly back in the title race. Hopefully with players to return for the four game run-in, (which begins in two weeks after most of the players are back from a ski trip to Italy) we can still take the title back to Winterton; fingers crossed.We know this though with key players bang in form and big games still to come, we do have a chance. Now for the run-in to start.

Scorers: Jack Rhodes(3), Kris Collins(3), Lewis Clark, Nick Wingate.

DP M.O.M: Jack Rhodes
Blogger M.O.M: Jordan Merrill/Kristian Collins.

Other Results:
Brigg Town 3-1 Bottesford
Messingham 1-4 Gainsborough


PS
A two week break will now start because of some of the squad leaving for a ski trip to Italy.

30/1/2011 JK League 1 Results

Bottesford Town 5-0 App-Frod Juniors
Dale Park 8-2 Gainsborough
App-Frod Saints 2-1 Brigg Town
Messingham 1-2 Crosby Wasps