Damage in the Box!: RETFORD UNITED (Cannon Park)

As the FA Cup reaches the tedious business end of proceedings, i.e. all the non-league teams slowly vanish and the so-called big teams come into the equation, the opportunity for new ground visits also vanishes too, however there was one or two places still left and fortunately for me an East Midlands clash was just the ticket.

Retford United have had a remarkable rise up the pyramid in recent seasons and were plying their trade in the Central Midlands league as recently as 2004, when the won the title. Promotion to the Northern Counties league soon followed and after a season of consolidation they won the 1st division title in 2006 and the Premier league title quickly followed in 2007 and with it another promotion into the Unibond league south. Again they finished as champions in 2008 but promotion was denied this time because of ground grading.

Looking around today you can see why. Cannon Park is still your typical Central Midlands ground. There is a small, seated stand on one side of the pitch and that is about it. The rest of the ground consisted of just hard standing. There was nowhere to shelter from the Siberian type conditions today!

Alfreton Town are members of the Conference North and are currently have a mixed season, sitting in mid-table, but there are one or two ex-professional within their ranks, Leo Fortune-West being the most famous. On paper it should be a comfortable away win, but games are never won on paper and with wintry conditions there was always the chance of an upset.

As mentioned it was a very cold, wet and windy day but the upset was never going to be on the cards as Alfreton comfortably managed to see off Retford in this FA cup encounter. The conditions were never going to be conducive to flowing football but both teams gave their best to produce a decent game. The Alfreton keeper was the busier of the two, with the wind behind him, struggling to take crosses and Retford hit the post during ones of these wind-assisted flaps. Alfreton also had a wind assisted shot which crashed the crossbar, via the fingertips of the Retford keeper. Generally it was an end-to-end first half with both teams having half chances.

However, two goals in three minutes just before half time for Alfreton effectively killed the tie. Leo Fortune-West scored on 42 mins, and then on 45 mins Paul Clayton added a second. I can't tell you any more than that as I missed them both getting my half time brew in a futile attempt to warm myself up!

On the balance of play, it was a bit harsh on Retford to go in 2-0 down.

The second half was a bit of a non event until Retford sub Lee Whittington reduced the arrears on 72 mins with a glancing 12-yard header but the comeback wasn't to be as Clayton scored his second goal of the game, with a shot into the roof of the net from close range, just 6 mins later...I seen those two goals, btw!

Weather apart, a nice day out in Nottinghamshire.