After a decade of success it's been a tough season for Retford United this time around. Cut adrift at the bottom of the table with only eight points collected all season and out of all the cup competitions. At times the club have only managed to field a bare eleven players. Despite all this the club battles on and still attracts a hardy bunch of followers although one or two seem to have dropped off for one reason or another.
I normally get to the see the Badgers of Retford about half a dozen times a season. With local neighbours Worksop Town also sharing Retford's Cannon Park stadium it means Retford based football fans are never short of a live game to go to. The ground is also built on a flood plain. All this plus the fact that it had rained all morning meant the pitch resembled a bog in places(although it was perfectly playable) I got up there about 1.30 ish and headed straight to the bar like a Guinea pig after a sprig of fresh parsley.
Its rugga bugga time over here at the moment so that was on the big screen in the excellent Cannon park club house.
After England put Wales in their place Friday night it was the turn of perennial wooden spoon winners Italy to pit there wits against Ireland in the Six nations championship. I don't give a toss about rugby if truth be told. The only highpoint to it for me is to see England give Scotland there annual kicking. It is amazing how most people dont care about Rugby then as soon as the six nations starts everybody loves it. A good few Matlock fans had made the short trip over from Derbyshire and given the crap weather outside many were in the bar.
I met up with Baz just before kickoff and we trudged round to the far end under the covering. Matlock were kicking towards us so we stood with them for the first half. Felice joined us just after kick off and tuned in BBC Radio Lincolnshire so he could keep us up dated with the Imps quest to win 5 games in a row away at Hereford United.
This wasn't a day for passing football but it was great to watch. In what was a throwback to "the good old days" It was a scrap with the ball spending more time in the air rather than on the deck. Unsurprisingly Matlock did look to have the upper hand in 'on the ball' skill but the boggy pitch made it easy for Retford to get bodies behind the ball. Great news came through from Hereford as DELROY FACEY had bagged his fourth of the campaign to put the Imps 1-0 up.
Moments later, Retford went 1-0 down when the keeper flapped at a hopeful ball in the box, missing it thus allowing it to nestle in the back of the net. A real punch in the guts for the home side. The goal signalled Pie chips and mushy peas time for us so we ambled off for refreshments and watched the rest of the half from side of the pitch on the halfway line.
We returned to the clubhouse at halftime to check out the scores and get out of the rain. Lincoln were holding on at Hereford while the egg ball Azzurri were down but hanging onto Ireland's coat tails in the rugby.
In the second half Retford matched their opponents and even got a couple of good attacks in themselves. Unfortunately straight after one of these Matlock countered and the ball was soon in the Retford net. This cushion seemed to settle Matlock down and they began to turn the screw on Retford. The Badgers keeper made up for his earlier goof by saving a penalty from Matlocks top scoer Ross Hannah, but he had no chance with the 3rd and 4th. The score line was a tad harsh on Retford but that's life.
Lincoln held out to go 9 points clear of the drop zone in league two! Who would have though that 3 weeks ago? Not me!
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