A win on the road
Phoenix v Newark Town FC
Central Midland League
“A loud cheer could be heard across Rotherham on Saturday evening from supporters and officials alike after the referee had blown his final whistle giving Newark a 2-0 victory and three precious points against Phoenix FC.
It was an early 2pm kick off, as the home side do not have floodlights.
From the very start it was Town who were on the attack. After just ten seconds, some nice control from central midfielder, Jordan Cummings, was followed by a solid back-pass to centre half, Luke Parsons, who immediately drove the ball twenty-five yards along the ground and forward to the centre-circle and Sam Wilford who turned and hit a 30 yard forward pass to the left wing, the resultant cross from Conor Tansley went close, just over the Phoenix crossbar.
On 20 minutes, a long forward ball found Kieran Job who ran directly at the goal, a defenders attempted tackle gifted the ball to Sam Wilford whose shot from just outside the penalty area was just again, unfortunately for Town, over the crossbar.
On 28 minutes another good run, a 30-yard diagonal sprint from right to left from Kieran Job found Rhys Stanley who neatly and calmly dispatched passed Keeper, Sam Calty, making it 1-0 to the Town.
With five minutes remaining of the first half and immediately after a Phoenix corner was cleared, new signing, Connor Tansley, was found after a quick exchange of passes, at the far post of the Phoenix goal but his shot was fired wide of the target.
On 57 minutes, Conor Tansley, made amends for his earlier miss when he superbly waited a forward pass allowing Kieran Job to beat the offside trap with his speed and running towards the centre of goal he was able to slot a low hard shot passed the advancing keeper to give Newark a two goal lead.
This was a tough game. Whilst Phoenix had their chances, it was a new formation in defence for Newark that provided an almost impregnable solid wall so that the home sides chances were limited to just a few. Playing in the centre of defence was new signing, Luke Parsons, who was awarded man-of-the-match for his fine performance.
After yesterday’s good result and picking up the three points against mid-table Phoenix, there was some optimistic talk that Town currently languishing at the bottom of the league might now be poised to rise from the ashes to climb the table with twelve games remaining.”
Town manager Damo Parkinson joins Mick & Tony on Thursday’s Sports Show to discuss his vision for the Blues.