Cancelled Friendly "Blessing In Disguise"

THE decision by Retford United to call off Saturday’s pre-season friendly against Rainworth MW has been described as a ‘blessing in disguise’.

Wrens managers Lee Wilkinson and Billy Millar decided against trying to arrange an alternative fixture after seeing their side held to a 3-3 draw at Central Midlands League neighbours Clipstone Welfare on Tuesday night.

It was a match in which no quarter was given, and was reminiscent of the ding-dong battles when the two clubs were arch-rivals, first in the Notts Alliance and then in the Central Midlands League.

But it was also a disappointing performance by the Wrens after two encouraging fixtures had brought a 1-1 draw with a Mansfield Town XI and a 5-1 victory at Parkhouse.

Prior to the first game against the Stags, Wilkinson and Millar had promised that they would be using the fixtures to look at different shapes, players in different positions etc, but the change of shape for the first half at the Lido Ground manifestly did not work, and multiple changes for the second half served only to negate any flow from Rainworth’s point of view.

Millar said afterwards: “If there is anything which tonight showed us it was that firstly our first half formation did not suit us, and secondly that trying to give 22 players some time on the pitch during a match is too much, even though it gave us the chance to look at a few.”

Wilkinson added: “We’ve decided now not to try to fix up an alternative game for Saturday, but instead to play an in-house game so that we can give as many players as possible the chance to have a full 90 minutes.

“We currently have around 23 players, and there are also a couple of triallists for us still to have a look at, besides which we are also in negotiations with two or three others, but we will need to get our squad down to around 18.

“So it’s still up to the each of players to convince us that they should be on the team sheet on 13th August – it’s still all very much up for grabs, we want to give everyone a fair crack of the whip, and seeing how everyone performs over the 90 minutes on Saturday will probably give us some idea of who will make the cut.

“We are at home to Sutton Town on Tuesday and hope to re-arrange the Retford game for Thursday before next Saturday’s friendly against Notts County, by which time we should be fairly sure of who will be contenders for the starting shirts.”

In Tuesday night’s game, watched by 93, Clipstone’s Sam Bailey took advantage of a misplaced free kick to give his side a sixth-minute lead which they held until the break.
Danny Simpson (55) an Ollie Wood (61) turned the contest Rainworth’s way after the interval, but Anthony Rowland equalised for the home side five minutes later.

Craig Mitchell restored the Wrens’ lead on 73 but it lasted just three minutes before Rowland struck again to earn his side a draw.

Meanwhile Rainworth are on the lookout for another goalkeeper after the retiring Mark Hales’ projected successor Joe McCormack suffered a broken elbow at work this week.

McCormack is likely to miss at least the first six weeks of the new season, and although former Glapwell keeper Neil West has also signed, his work commitments mean he cannot always be available.