South Yorkshire Times, May 2nd, 1970
Challenge Cup Final Replay
Main Street Pull it off in Action Packed Final Replay
Main Street 2, Denaby United 0
Main Street and Denaby United resumed their epic battle for the Mexborough Challenge Cup at Hampden Road on Saturday, as supporters who went with the memory of that 4-4 draw fresh in their minds were not disappointed…it was action all the way. Main Street won 2-0, and just to rub it in, they visited Denaby the following day for a Doncaster Premier League match, and drew 3-3. It can’t have overjoyed Denaby to know they were the equal of the Mexborough team one day but inferior the day before. Because the one that mattered, the one with all the trophies and congratulations at the end of it, went most emphatically Main Street’s way.
Lacked Drive
Denaby United, lacking the drive of the injured Pettit in midfield, never got their teeth into this match and the longer it went on the farther away from scoring they seemed. The attack that scored seven goals in two other encounters with Main Street floundered on a defence that tackled hard and fast and with little support from the coughing, spluttering engine room in midfield, Denaby were sadly out of touch.
At only one stage did this match swing towards Denaby – and that was in the last quarter of an hour when Main Street’s tireless schemer was sent off, for saying a little bit more than he should have. The young schemer could justifiably have felt aggrieved at this decision for there were many petty fouls and a lot of stupid niggling that went on without any intervention from the referee. Indeed, if certain players concentrated more on football and less on applying boot to ankle when the ball had gone, the score line just might have been different.
Main Street had gone close when attacking full-back Godfrey fired a shot over the top in the early stages, before the first goal in the 25th minute. This came from a free kick chipped into the middle by Briggs and headed on by McCabe. Centre forward O’Rourke screwed it into goal.
Control
With the goal behind them, Main Street assumed control and Robinson and McCabe were causing a good deal of trouble in the Denaby defence. When Denaby attacked, it was too often young Kitchen versus Main Street, and though the centre forward tried hard, he hadn’t much support.
Ten minutes from half time Main Street should have had a second. Tommy Gray, who gave everything he had in this match, was through with only the ’keeper to beat, but his shot skidded the wrong side of the post.
Denaby’s goal chances in this half had not materialised at all, and fifty minutes were up before Main Street looked like conceding an equaliser – and then Kitchen lost a vital yard when he slipped when chasing a through ball.
Tempers
There followed a period in which tempers flared and at one stage it looked as though the match might degenerate into a brawl. A three-man collision ended with Robinson and Denaby ‘keeper Whitehead on the deck for treatment, and straight after this came Robinson’s dismissal.
Denaby full-back Davies was booked, and with 15 minutes to go, Denaby thew everything into an attack. Bowden flashed a shot across goal, but the minutes were ticking away and Main Street still held firm.
Then with just four minutes left, a long clearance out of the Main Street defence was headed on by Gray, and McCabe sprinted through to fend off a couple of defenders and shoot past Whitehead. It sealed the match, and justly, too.
Teams: –
Denaby: Whitehead, Davies, Gough, Greenwood, Grey, Sapey, England, Peart, Kitchen, Bowden, Reynolds.
Main Street: Gamble, Law, Godfrey, Briggs, Spencer, Jones, Gray, Robinson, O’Rourke, McCabe, Fennell, Sub: Cotton.