Contents & Contacts Contents Chairman’s Notes Nostell MW Recent Results & Match Reports NCEL Division One—Table & Today’s Games The Non-League Paper Article by Matt Badcock Proud History /Bright Future Todays Visitors— Hallam FC Club History Nostell MW Season’s Stats & Facts Getting to know with Nathan Hawkhead On this day—15th February Past Results—Hallam FC Meet the Ref— Liam Smith Nostell MW Squad & Sponsors 2019/20 Today’s Squads Contacts Chairman: Kevin Allsop – 07803 546888 Club Secretary: Granville Marshall – 01924 864462 Matchday Sec: Ralph Wainwright -07974 646640 Twitter - @nostellmwfc Facebook – Nostell Miners Welfare FC E-Mail – [email protected] Chairman’s Notes I’dNoes like to ….extend a warm welcome to everyone for today’s NCEL Division One fixture against Hallam FC here at the Welfare Ground. It’s always proved difficult to find positive results against todays opponents, the last of which was in this fixture last season when I took temporary charge in the touch- line absences of Simon & Jason the win coming after an early goal wrestled the ini- tiative and saw us weather a second-half storm to run out 1 nil winners. Hallam’s current form looks very positive with just one defeat in their last seven games in what apparently was a feisty affair at home to a resurgent Rossington Main side. I understand Hallam ended the game with just eight players on the pitch after a sending-off and two sin-bins. Let’s hope todays clash isn’t quite so feisty. Last Saturday’s result against a “dogged” Dronfield Town was particularly disap- pointing given how we dominated play for virtually the whole of the ninety minutes, missed chances cost us badly. I still don’t know how Almo managed to get that ball so high over the crossbar from such short distance from goal and just how/why in an offside position Mr Owen took the ball off Billy Mole’s toe after a great run with the ball from deep and the goal at his mercy, just to name a couple of instances which should have seen all three points comfortably in the bag !! Football has a habit of kicking you when you’re down on your luck. My motto in life and business is you create your own luck, people just ain’t lucky all the time, afterall you can’t win the lottery if you don’t buy a ticket !! You’ve to keep working even hard- er when down on your luck and another couple of life/business motto’s I frequently refer to are “hardwork cannot be destroyed” and “don’t let the so-an-so’s grind you down”. Just maybe another thought for our management duo “rather than keep trying to knock down the door why not try find the key to open it”. My/our last game before catching some rays of sunshine. All the very best lads. Regards Kevin Nostell MW Recent Results Nostell Miners Welfare 1-1 Dronfield Town Saturday 8th February | Nostell MW I Toolstation NCEL Division One | Att 52 This was always going to be a difficult game to predict and so the outcome proved. Nostell with a change in formation started very brightly and were rewarded for our enterprise with a penalty after just 4 mins which Skip Meynell dis- patched with aplumb. After great work by Billy Mole down the left, how tom Almond fired over the crossbar on 31 mins from virtually on the goal line still remains a mystery. The Dronfield keeper big toe denied Liam Owen a certain goal on 40 mins followed by a last ditched save by the Nostell keep- er Gary Stevens to keep the advantage going into halftime. 1-0 H/Time. A free header on 65 mins gave the visitors hope. Nostell hoofed and poofed throughout the second half but couldn’t find the winner. Nostell Miners Welfare 0-0 Rossington Main Saturday 1st February | Nostell MW | Toolstation NCEL Division One | Att 52 Three disappointing defeats in a row get- ting back to winning ways essential, how- ever a mixture of Rossington coming to defend deep and the home side struggling for confidence and form tell the tale of a difficult afternoon, neither team decisive in front of goal the best chance coming early in the game when a good positive Nostell move, threatened only for Kane Reece to fire wide past the opposite post from the edge of the six year box when it looked easier to open the scoring with the Rossington keeper on his backside. Again in the second half neither side really got going with genuine chances to score at a premium. Toolstation NCEL Division One Non-League Paper Article THEY say age is just a number but in football it’s one that can increasingly count against you – especially as it increases! So let’s show our appreciation for some Golden Oldies, who are doing their bit to show if you’re good enough, you’re young enough also rings true. After all, it was only a few years ago that Chris Swailes became the oldest scorer at Wembley when he notched for Morpeth Town in their 4-1 FA Vase final win over Hereford. Swailes was 45 years old when he turned the ball into the net to silence the mass of Hereford fans who had made the trip. Not bad for a defender who has had a long, career that took in plenty of stops in the Football League. Non-League is always good for an evergreen footballer, particularly the strikers. Paul Bray- son has been a regular scorer for Newcastle Benfield in recent years and he is still knocking them in aged 42. Perhaps it’s something about those genuine goalscorers that, while the legs might not be as quick as they used to be, the minds is just as sharp. That gets them into the right goalscoring positions and then, when the ball is at their feet or the cross is in the right place, they just know how to stick the ball into the back of the net. Jamie Cureton has scored at every level from the Premier League down. At 44 he isn’t just on the back nine of his career, he’s strolling up the 18th. But he’s still one of the leading scorers in the Isthmian Premier Division and despite a sur- prise departure from Bishop’s Stortford last week – the club couldn’t guarantee his continuing role as player-manager next season – he has already found the net for new club Hornchurch. I caught up with his new manager, Mark Stimson, last week and he spoke to Cureton’s desire to get in behind the back four burning as bright as ever. Stimson describes Cureton as a “clever” player and he’s sure the youngsters in their squad will take plenty on board from the former Norwich City man. Cureton himself says it is all about diet and re-fuelling the right way after matches. When I spoke to Cureton last year as he reached his 1,000th game, he said he genuinely felt like he could do a job in the League still. And while you’re feeling good, why not keep playing? Back in the FA Vase, there was a familiar name on the scoresheet in Wroxham’s win over Stowmarket Town. Grant Holt, another former Norwich striker, turns out regularly for the Thurlow Nunn Premier Division Yachtsmen. He hit a penalty in the 2-0 win that has put them in the last eight of the competition. A final hurrah at Wembley Stadium for Holt? Although aged 38, he could have far more opportunities yet. Just ask Swailes! Proud History Bright Future Records exist that a team from Nostell Colliery won a Wakefield District football competition in the 1890’s. The club has photographs of Nostell Colliery teams from 1915 & 1921. At that time the football field was not in the present location but on two sites fairly close by. The Miner’s Welfare was formed in 1928 after the purchase of the land by the Miners Trust Fund. The sum of £400 was paid to a local land owner for 4.5 acres which includes the land on which the present ground is situated. A Miner’s Welfare football team was formed and enjoyed early success. The club owns a medal donated by a former player from the 1930’s and a photograph of the team who won the Wakefield & District League in 1938. After the war, the Welfare provided much needed recreation for the local community and the football team was successful in several annual football competitions. In the late fifties a team from the Welfare visited Belgium to compete against local opposition, a feat unprecedented at that time. The club are proud owners of the trophy won on that successful tour nd press cuttings of the occasion. in the late 60’s the club had a period of sustained success, winning several Wakefield District competitions and eventually being selected to join the West Yorkshire League, lifting the Division 2 League and Cup double in the 1966/67 season. However, the successful team eventually broke up and the club went back to the Wakefield League in the early 1970’s. Enjoying relative success the club began to develop again; two teams were formed, the first team joining the West Yorkshire League in 1982. Following mining subsidence to the ground, fund raising of over £30,000 allowed the pitch to be levelled off, drainage installed and other ground improvements.