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KICKING-OFF
A WORD FROM THE CHAIRMAN
Welcome to Ingfield for this rearranged Pitching in NPL east game with Lincoln United.
Saturday’s game with Frickley Athletic is one of the most bizarre games I have witnessed, as we were reduced to ten men and then quickly went two behind I’m not sure many in the ground were expecting what followed. It’s up there with a trip to Lancaster City a few years ago where Ossett Town trailed 2-0 in the 90th minute but left with a 3-2 win!
We have been saying that with the gap to the play-offs potentially now out of reach we do not want the season to fizzle out and the final thirty minutes on Saturday showed that the players are not going to let that happen either. That doesn’t mean the first half performance was acceptable, Colliver and Ward have said as much, hopefully it doesn’t take an injustice on the field to stoke the fires and tonight we are ‘at it’ from minute one.
As Jas will touch on in his notes, the support was tremendous once again on Saturday and really do act as a 12th man, once again getting over 500 in the ground is a great achievement, beaten by only four clubs in the NPL Premier Division on Saturday! We have been building and improving the club over the last couple of years, with Jas and Wardy we are very confident over the coming seasons we will see the side challenging at the top of this division and higher, it is certainly all of our belief that is the direction we should be taking and it is where the management team want to be too.
The food bank collection on Saturday was a huge success, thank you to everyone for their generous donations, Neville, who led this will give you more information on that.
Today we will be taking donations that will be sent to support Ukrainian’s whose suffering really proves the point that football is the most important ‘unimportant’ thing in our lives. Many other clubs are doing the same so hopefully our collective efforts will make some small difference at this time.
Enjoy the game!
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The Presidents Address
Neville Wigglesworth
It would be wrong of me not to start without placing on record a massive thank you to everyone who so kindly supported our recent appeal for donations to the South Ossett Church food bank. The initiative exceeded all expectations and the generosity of many was nothing short of staggering. As previously stated if anyone forgot but would still like to the opportunity to contribute towards the effort we will also take donations at our next home game on Non-League Day – March 26th – when we are at home to Shildon. Such was the response of our fans to the appeal the next step of delivering all the items to the food bank will take several trips but that makes it all the more worthwhile. Thanks again for your support.
Talking of support last Saturday’s victory over Frickley Athletic was particularly notable for a couple of reasons. Our manager Jas has frequently talked about the importance to the team of vocal support from the terraces and that was certainly the case on Saturday. A disappointing first half performance resulted in a very muted response from fans but, having gone two goals down, Iffy’s strike gave us a lifeline and from thereon the noise from the fans was amazing and, I’m sure, played a part in spurring us on to the eventual success which, at one stage, looked highly unlikely. It was the same at Yorkshire Amateur in the previous game but, with our support remaining as subdued as I can ever remember, the team on that occasion bowed out with little more than a whimper. Comparing the difference in vocal support in the two games highlighted just how important the interaction between players and fans can be.
The Frickley result also gave us our first league “double” of the campaign to boot and also took us onto the 40 point mark for the season just about ensuring that we are comfortably assured of Northern Premier League football again next season. The constitution of the various divisions at Step 4 for next season are far from confirmed but there will almost certainly be a number of new teams joining us so there will be pastures new for our travelling support to visit and assess.
Another most satisfying feature of the Frickley game was the attendance figure of 516 no doubt helped by Huddersfield Town playing on Friday evening and Leeds United playing on Sunday afternoon. This comfortably keeps our average ‘gate’ above the 500 mark which, as I keep banging on about, is important to our future ground development plans and improvement of the match day experience for all. After tonight we will be down to just three remaining home games – Shildon, Worksop Town and Tadcaster Albion. It would be absolutely brilliant to finish the season with an average attendance of over 500 so let’s hope that will be the case come the end of April.
I have to confess I am a bit of an addict to the weekday television quiz show Pointless. Recently there was a bloke on who informed viewers that he was a Crawley Town supporter. He further proffered the view that he preferred it when they were still a Non-League club rather than a Football League club as they now are. He cited the camaraderie at the ground, meeting people and making friendships in the clubhouse before and after the match as the main reasons for this opinion. In that respect I couldn’t agree more with his view.
The atmosphere in our bar after the Frickley game was a bit special as well. We had the rare sight of both Chef Wednesday and Richard Callaghan smiling and contented at the same time and Luke Swinden on a metaphorical ‘high’ at the result and demonstrating his euphoria by buying in a ridiculously large round of drinks. Let’s hope we get a similar performance this evening and push on to accumulate as many points as possible before the end of the season.
Neville Wigglesworth – President Ossett United FC
Good evening and welcome to everyone connected to Lincoln United, we know tonight’s game is going to be another tough test. Lincoln were unlucky not to get anything out of the game on Saturday against high flying Marske.
Where do I start after such a weird game on Saturday, it was one of those days even at 2-0 down I fancied us to get something from the game but the manner we won the game was the most pleasing. I think everyone of the lads performed to their maximum particularly with ten men. We kicked up the slope with the wind against and sun in our eyes in the first half but still created opportunities to score we just lacked that quality or a tad of desire in the final third. Our back four and Edd had to deal with a lot of long balls, throw ins coming in from everywhere and corners which they dealt with really well. At half time the lads were down and a bit flat, we basically went through the stats and showed them we were creating chances and half chances so it was a case of getting the lads to believe in theirselves more. Wally added two to his tally, he’s worked hard for the team and has scored 4 in 9 games since we arrived doubling his tally for the season. I’m confident there’s more goals to come from him this season particularly with the chances we are now creating. Many areas of the game pleased us but what was clear to see was how fit we looked and credit to the lads they have bought into how we train and prepare on a weekly basis. The lads have trained twice a week and sometimes three times since the new year and that showed on Saturday. I keep taking about have a strong squad and competition for places on Saturday the lads who came on were excellent once again. Their energy was infectious and it gave everyone a lift.
I forgot to introduce three new players on Saturday, those who were at the game on Saturday will have seen Josh Waldram who joined us from Belper Town. Josh played every game for Belper before he sustained a long term injury I thought he was brilliant on Saturday but also think there’s more to come from him as he is just finding his feet again after a long time on the sidelines. Oli and Ellis are on a dual registration from Guiesley. Oli has featured twice and Ellis is waiting patiently for his opportunity. Both youngsters have played at this level and made their debuts in the conference north for Guiesley this season. Oli was incredible on Saturday showing us he is more than competent to play at this level, he was all over the pitch and chipped in with a goal too.
And finally once again thank you for your magnificent support it makes a huge difference being spurred on by the crowd. Even though we were losing 1-0 at half time the crowd clapped us off and really got behind us all the way through. More of the same tonight please and don’t be late to school in the morning the youngsters behind the goal!
Take care and enjoy the game.
Jas
A view from the Press Box...
Craig Biddlestone
So, go on then, who doesn’t love a comeback of epic proportions, because I know I do! We’ve some late drama already at Ingfield this season, Stockton Town and Sheffield FC to name but two, but Saturday’s game against Frickley Athletic somehow felt that little bit of a greater result, though it’s easy to see why.
One of the most overused phrases in football is “it’s always difficult playing against 10 men”, now I’m sure that if you looked up the stats, and there must be some somewhere, you would probably find that the vast majority of games where one of the teams has had a player sent off early on in a game or early on in the second half as was the case with Hazza on Saturday, and were losing, that have gone on to remain in that losing position.
Don’t get me wrong, the Stockton and Sheffield games were added time winners, 93rd minute v Stockton and 96th v Sheffield, but the Frickley game was something very special indeed. 2-0 down, 10 men, outplayed, and nothing to say at this point whatsoever that we would score one, let alone four!
I said on the radio when Hazza had gone that we should maybe look at going 3 at the back, pushing the full-backs up to make a 4 across the middle and have a number 10 playing behind the striker, and that was near enough what happened. Hats off to Jas and Wardy though, Oli Metcalfe coming on at half-time was probably esssential, that’s not a knock on Greeny at all but the ref could easily have shown him a second yellow before Hazza had walked, this added a bit more steel to the midfield area alongside Josh Waldram, and then with Jordan Turner coming on it provided a different outlet in the final third.
Okay, at 2-0 up and playing against 10 men it could be easy to say that Frickley stepped down a gear or two, but no, I would say it was more a case of they couldn’t cope with our change of formation, the intensity we showed and the desire to put things right, and we did, I thoroughly enjoyed Saturday and I hope you all did too.
Speaking of Saturday, some of you on the terraces may have heard “your getting sacked in the morning”, for those of you unaware this was aimed at me, and why? Well basically none of us in the PA box knew who had scored the equaliser, so when I read the goal scorer out as “I don’t know who” you can imagine the ironic cheers from our older Ultra’s down the side of the pitch, but, I love the banter, I really do, And whilst I take my job seriously there always has to be an element of light heartedness. We often go off on a tangent during radio commentary and often end that particular piece of conversation with “you don’t get that on 5Live”!
I’m not going to lie but with the PA box being where it is you sometimes struggle to work out who has scored down at the Bonfire End, especially at night (though hopefully the new floodlights will help), and whilst I fully understand that it certainly isn’t top of the list of priorities when it comes to ground improvements, I do know that the club would hopefully like to get the box moved to a more central position, and I also know how much it would mean to the commentary team too.
This brings me on to my final point, it’s always nice to get praise from above, as we did on Saturday in James’s programme notes, I echo his stance that we have one of the best media teams in the league (and possibly the league above too), so I’d just like to add my own personal thanks to the whole of the media team, Ossett United are very lucky to have such brilliant people on board, thank-you to every single one of you.
We’re back with the players for the half-time music selections, starting off with Edd Hall tonight, so thank-you Edd.
Hopefully we’ll get another morale boosting victory tonight against Lincoln United to take us in to a tough game at Stockton on Saturday, but whatever the result tonight, I hope you all enjoy the game.
Craig
OSSETT UNITED
SQUAD LIST
Ossett United Coaching Team:
- Manager: Jas Colliver
- Assistant Manager: Mark Ward
- Coach: Gary Middleton
- Physio: Emily Crispin
- Video Analyst: Jack Sloan
Ossett United Squad:
- Edd HALL (GK)
- Jake TEALE (GK)
- Brad BEATSON
- Jack COWGILL (C)
- Ellis FARRAR
- Harry GAGEN
- Ross HARDAKER
- Dec McGIVERN
- George GREEN
- Aaron HASWELL
- Luke HOGG
- Josh WALDRAM
- Oli METCALFE
- Mikey WILLIAMS
- Charlie WOOD
- Ify OFOEGBU
- Jordan TURNER
- James WALSHAW
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Lincoln United
SQUAD LIST
Lincoln Utd Coaching Team:
- Manager: Sam Wilkinson
- Assistant: Stuart Reddington
- Player/Coach: George Zeurner
- GK Coach: James Morgan
- Coach: Martin Burnett
- Sports Therapist: Tom Phillips
Lincoln Utd Squad:
- Jack Steggles
- Simon Biggs
- Kallum Smith
- Tobias Liversidge
- Hayden Cann
- Ben Richards
- Andy Janssen
- Mitchell Griffiths
- Jake Park
- Matthew Cotton
- Jack Wightwick
- Louie Jarvis
- Josh Wilson
- Freddie Pitts
- Samuel Swinn
Golazzo: The Football Italia Years by Jonathan Grade
When you think about the movers and shakers in UK sports broadcasting over the years, Channel 4 might not necessarily be the first name that comes to mind. However, this was the station that brought coverage of the NFL to these shores, laying the foundations of a generation that has seen the game gain a real foothold in this country as well as broadcasting sumo wrestling from Japan and kabaddi from India which both enjoyed cult followings. A more familiar sport though hit the screens via Channel 4 when they picked up the live television rights to Italy’s top football division Serie A in the early 1990s. The output consisted of two programmes, Gazzetta Football Italia on Saturday mornings, which contained the highlights of the previous week's matches and a piece on Italian culture and Sunday afternoon live games (although this came to change in later years).
Channel 4’s coverage began in the 1992/93 season and continued until 2001/02. In that initial season, England had three internationals playing in Serie A, Paul Gascoigne (Lazio), David Platt (Juventus) and Des Walker (Sampdoria) providing interest for fans of the Three Lions. However, there was so much more to Italy’s top division, as during this period it was considered the best league in the World boasting some of the finest players on the planet, at a time when Italian teams dominated the European Club competitions. Allied to quality on the pitch, Channel 4 had a superb team fronting and commentating including the legendary Kenneth Wolstenholme, Peter Brackley and James Richardson. Behind the scenes in the production of the programmes, Jonathan Grade worked and progressed from being a runner to Series Editor and in Golazzo: The Football Italia Years he looks back on his time involved with the shows.
The back cover of the book promises, “a nostalgic look back with some stories from behind the scenes”. However, the reality is that overall it fails to deliver. What readers get over the first nine chapters is essentially a retelling of each of the season’s that Channel 4 covered Serie A. It isn’t until Chapter 10 and Grade’s reflections and tributes to Wolstenholme, Brackley and Programme Director Tim Docherty that readers get a feel for those involved and stories on and off screen. James Richardson on the shows was known as a charismatic and witty presenter, yet the anecdotes about him are few and far between.
It is obvious that the Football Italia years were the best of his working life and as Grade details within the book, it was his “dream job”. However, ultimately the enjoyment and memories Grade had don’t fully translate within the pages of Golazzo: The Football Italia Years.
(Publisher: Independently published. November 2020. Paperback: 177 pages)
Jonathan Grade is a freelance television producer, who spent the best part of a decade working on Channel 4’s Gazzetta Football Italia and live Football Italia programmes from 1993 until 2002 - the last two of which as Series Editor.
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Match Report: OUFC 4 - 2 Frickley Athletic
Perfect playing conditions down at the world famous Ingfield, and Ossett were hoping to bounce back after two games without a win, with the last league match being a 2-0 loss at Yorkshire Amateur. Four places and twelve points separated the two teams ahead of kickoff, with Ossett in 10th and Frickley flirting with the relegation places in 14th.
Despite the gap in the table, it was Frickley who scored first in the 7th minute of the match. A cross from the right-hand side fell to James Matthews, who drilled the ball home from twelve yards out into the top right-hand corner. This was going to be the story of the first half for Ossett, as nothing seems to go their way. However, the half was not without chances for the boys in sky blue. A curling corner from George Green found the head of Ify Ofoegbu in the area, but headed over the bar under pressure from Aiden Smith in the Frickley goal.
In the 35th minute, George Green received a yellow card for a late challenge, which was met by huge remonstrations by the Frickley players, who hounded the referee. The first half was dominated mainly by the referee, who’s blows of the whistle stopped either side from gaining any sort of momentum or rhythm in the game. Shortly after this yellow card, Ossett had a chance to equalise. A deep free kick from their own half was played upfield by Jack Cowgill. The ball was flicked on by James Walshaw to Aaron Haswell, who’s shot was deflected into the path of Ify Ofoegbu and his left footed shot was placed over the bar.
At halftime, Oli Metcalfe replaced George Green, and Jas Colliver and his boys had a small mountain to climb in the second half. However, this mountain was made even bigger in the 48th minute when Aaron Haswell received a straight red. After some kicks being shared with a Frickley defender, Haswell appeared to push him in the chest, to which the defender reacted by falling over and putting his hands on his face. Despite this, just when you thought the match couldn’t get any worse for Ossett, it did; Frickley scored a second in the 52rd minute. A soft yellow on Harry Gagen resulted in a freekick on the halfway line, which was played along the left wing to cross into the box, which was met by the head of Bradley Wells to double Frickley’s advantage.
These last thirty-eight minutes or so were really going to make or break the spirit of the Ossett time, and their spirit most certainly didn’t break. The second Ossett substitution was made, with Jordan Turner coming on to replace Ross Hardaker, and in the 57th minute, Ossett gained a precious goal back, and started to claw their way back into the game. Ify Ofoegbu, after being brought down recklessly by Nathan Perks just moments before, got his well-deserved goal. The resulting free kick was played upfield and flicked on by a Frickley defender to Charlie Wood, who’s shot beat the keeper and Ofoegbu put the ball home to make sure.
This goal was the game-changer, the goal that lit the fire in the metaphorical Ossett belly, and this lit the fuse for the rest of the game. Eight minutes later, Ossett grabbed that all important equaliser. A corner dangerously put in by Josh Waldrum was flicked in at the near post by Oli Metcalfe. Just over a minute later, another corner was flicked on by Waldrum but Jordan Turner was unable to meet the ball at the back post just narrowly missing out.
In the 71st minute, Frickley very nearly equalised but Edd Hall was the saviour of the day. The ball was chipped into the area to Bradley Wells, who backheeled the ball but Hall reacted almost cat-like to keep the ball out. Another Frickley yellow was given after a long ball in behind by Walshaw sent Jordan Turner through on goal, but he was brought down recklessly by Nathan Whitehead who received a yellow.
In the 83rd minute, the comeback was complete; Ossett made it 3-2. Charlie Wood slipped a pass in behind to Jordan Turner who was brought down, but James Walshaw pounced on the loose ball and put it home to the delight on the fans down at the Bonfire End. In the 88th minute, Ossett were given a freekick in a dangerous position on the edge of the area after James Walshaw was clattered by the Frickley goalkeeper. This free kick resulted in Ossett making it 4-2 in the match. James Walshaw took the free kick, which was deflected in past the keeper to put the icing on the cake and to send Ingfield into raptures. The fulltime whistle blew, and it was a tale of two halves for Ossett. The first half was poor, scrappy, couldn’t get any momentum or tempo into their play, but the second half was absolutely incredible, the lads showed terrific heart and fight to get back into the match, with the three points being fully deserved. The management team should take huge encouragement from that, and hope that the players show this fight and courage every match.
Looking forward to the next round of fixtures, Ossett play host Lincoln United on Tuesday night, and Frickley host Bridlington Town on Saturday 19th March.
Ossett United: 1. Edd Hall, 2. Harry Gagen, 3. Ross Hardaker (Turner 52’), 4. Josh Waldrum, 5. Jack Cowgill (C), 6. Brad Beatson, 7. George Green (Metcalfe 45’), 8. Aaron Haswell (R), 9. James Walshaw, 10. Ify Ofoegbu, 11. Charlie Wood
Subs: 12. Mikey Williams, 14. Jordan Turner, 15. Oli Metcalfe, 16. Ellis Farrar, 17. Jake Teale.
Frickley Athletic: 1. Aiden Smith, 2. Arun Jones (Esmaeily 86’), 3. Joe West, 4. Michael Hollingsworth (C, Perks 45’), 5. Bobby Faulkner, 6. Nathan Whitehead, 7. Joshua Scott, 8. Keegan Everington, 9. Bradley Wells, 10. Rod Orlando-Young, 11. James Matthews
Subs: 12. Nathan Perks, 14. Leon Mettam, 15. Seyavoush Esmaeily
Your OUFC MOTM was Charlie Wood.
The attendance today was 516.
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Credits:
JonHuntPhotography Keith Wood