ABACUS LIGHTING CENTRAL MIDLANDS FOOTBALL LEAGUE ROUND UP RESERVES DIVISIONS AND PRESENTATION EVENING by Frank Harwood.
IT?S JOY FOR ARNOLD & SANTOS RESERVES
When Arnold Town applied to bring their Reserves side back into the CMFL they gave the reason as requiring a better standard of football and better grounds.
Certainly they could not have envisaged the outcome, at Christmas they certainly looked like finishing in the top three positions of the Lee?s Reserves Premier Division, but after the celebrations the team went from strength to strength and took the division by storm, finishing as champions, eleven points clear of second placed Southwell City Reserves.
On their way to the title they scored 128 goals in their 34 matches and with a plus goal difference of 75 they certainly did the business at both ends of the field.
The final outcome for Southwell City Reserves must have been devastating, because, for the second season in a row they finished as the bridesmaids, they seemed to be in with a real chance of taking the title, until the last month, when Arnold?s consistency finally took its toll.
Southwell actually finished the season with six more points than the 2004/5 champions, Holbrook Miners Welfare Reserves.
Holbrook had another good season but they also found the run in difficult and fell away at the end of the season to finish fourth.
Both Retford United Reserves(3rd) and Nettleham Reserves (5th) kept within reach of the leaders, both can be pleased with their respective final placings, Retford on their first season back in the CMFL and Nettleham having been promoted, after finishing the 2004/5 season in third place in the Reserves Division One.
Rainworth Miners Welfare Reserves, like the first team may have been disappointed with their season, the previous year they had finished a creditable third so their final position of sixth, was perhaps not as good as they expected.
Radford Reserves showed an improvement, to finish in mid table, along with the Division One champions from the previous season Dunkirk Reserves, Dunkirk no doubt suffered because a number of their successful reserve players where drafted into the first team and after scoring 88 goals in the previous season, their final goal tally was just 60.
At the other end of the table, Graham St Prims Reserves found the season a hard slog and finished the season at the foot of the table, whilst their forwards scored a goal and half a game their defensive had a wretched time and conceded over three goals a game, with a final tally of 108, this was well in excess of all the other teams other than Carlton Town ?A? who also conceded over one hundred goals.
Thoresby Colliery Welfare finished two points above Prims and their real problem, like their first team, was scoring goals, their final tally of only 34 goals from 34 matches tells the reason why they finished second from bottom.
Radcliffe Olympic Reserves had ten points to spare over Thoresby in their final placing of third from bottom.
Newcomers Santos Reserves took the Lee?s Reserves Division One title, in the end they had twelve points to spare over second placed Appleby Frodingham Reserves and they also had the honour of being the first champions of the season.
Unlike the other champions, Santos, built their success on a sound defence and in their 26 league games they conceded only 25 goals and they ?tasted? defeat on only three occasions.
Appleby Frodingham Reserves seemingly where the only team to challenge Santos, for long periods they led the table, but this was due to having games in hand on the Nottinghamshire side, but they can be proud of their achievement of rising from mid table to finish runners up.
Welbeck Welfare Reserves finished third, in Carl Haslem they had a lethal striker, their final goals for tally of 91 was in no small measure due to his goal scoring powers, if their defensive had been more consistent then they could well have put more pressure on Santos and Appleby.
From 5th place to 4th place was the outcome for Newark Flowserve Reserves and if they can maintain their all round performance both in attack and defence, they could well be in the honours positions come the end of the 2006/7 season.
Disaster for Kimberley Town Reserves relegated from the Reserves Premier Division at the end of the 2004/5 season, their decline continued, they fell like a stone to finish propping up the league, Sandiacre Town ?A? also had a poor season, from runners up spot last season, their finished just one point above Kimberley and five points adrift of Newark Town Reserves, who in turn where nine points adrift of fourth from bottom, Matlock United Reserves.
The Phoenix Trophies Reserves Cup was won by Retford United Reserves who defeated Bottesford Town Reserves in an excellent final at Nettleham, Premier Division Retford won the game after coming from three goals down, but the final outcome was tough on Division One side, Bottesford, who had more than held their own with their higher placed opponents.
The Leagues Presentation Evening held at Forest Town Welfare on Friday June 2nd was a tremendous success; over two hundred people attended the event, with thirty seven clubs in attendance.
The highlight of the evening was the League Awards and Presentation of the Championship Cups and players trophies.
The award of the Secretary of the Season went to Steve Lumley- Holmes of Appleby Frodingham, Rainworth Miners Welfare took the Frank Harwood Trophy for the Programme of the season, Derbyshire club Heanor Town won the Supreme Division Sportsman?s Award with Harworth C I taking the Premier Division award.
The Tony Baugh Football Bonanza Trophy was won by Kiveton Park. Askern Welfare took the Team of the Season award.
Paul Wilson from the main sponsors, Abacus Lighting along with Christine Taylor, from Sponsors, Vipond Fore Protection and Mark Willford the Managing Director of Quartet Catering all assisted in the presentations and the league are grateful for their support on the night and financially throughout the season which assisted in the winners of and runners up receiving financial awards also on the night.
Awards was also made on the night by the Chairman of the CMFL?s Referees? & Assistant Referees? Association Chairman, Roger Evans, to clubs for Sportsmanship and Hospitality as voted for by the league referees?.
The evenings entertainment was provided by James Hart, a Compare/Singer from Leicester who?s rending of ?Till? was still being hummed at the end of the night, at least by the Chairman.
A storming performance, ?Smart Ass? a band from Bradford, had everybody on the end of their seats and their performance will be a talking point well into next season.
The event was a fitting end to another great season for the top league at level seven!
|