South Yorkshire Times, January 22nd, 1934

Mexborough Relinquish “Wooden Spoon”

Mexborough 4, Rotherham 1

1934 has opened auspiciously for Mexboro’.  On Saturday they continued a gratifying run of success for a victory over Rotherham which lifted them two places in the league and left their visitors holding the “wooden spoon.”

It was a well-earned win, although three of the goals were of the “soft” sort.  But though Turner in the Rotherham goal did not have a good day, the score did not flatter the winners and save for a short period immediately after the interval, Rotherham were not in the picture. Even during this short spell of aggression,  they were not together as a team and their advances were mainly possible because of a brief sequence of bad lapses by the Mexboro’ defenders.  The Rotherham halves merely booted the ball up the field and the forwards did the best they could with it, profiting by a number of miskicks to get to close quarters.  They only scored once, however, and never looked like scoring again.  None of the four amateurs they included showed particular promise but they were not markedly worse than the professionals, the bulk of whose work was aimless and ill-organised.

Mexboro’ were best served by their backs and their forwards. Ralph Burkinshaw gave a good first half display, but took some time to get going again after the interval and Moxon and Shepherd positioned themselves none too well. Wilbourne was the most prominent back on the field and in addition to  his defending well placed his clearances thoughtfully.  Winstanley was sound and robust and the pair always had the measure of the Rotherham attack. Bolan and Rogers were the best of the forwards, though the line worked brightly as a whole, with young Jack Burkinshaw showing plenty of dash and determination.

The Rotherham goal was soon in danger and had a remarkable escape in the first five minutes, when with Turner out of position Rogers shot against the underside of the bar and saw the ball kicked away when it bounced down on to the line.  But the reprieve was only temporary.  MILLER ran into the middle only to send in a tame ground shot which Turner looked to have well covered. The ball “kicked” however on the frost bound ground, and bounced over the goalkeeper’s shoulder.  Johnson ought to have equalised after 25 minutes but with a clear shot at goal hit the ball weakly outside.  ROGERS slipped on number two for Mexboro’, getting the ball as one of Bolan’s snap shots rebounded from the bar. A high punt by Shepherd from the wing which Turner seemed to misjudge brought the third goal and though WHITEHEAD reduced the deficit with a good shot just after the interval, Mexboro’ got a fourth goal to make the issue safe and certain. Jack BURKINSHAW was the scorer, his shot striking the post and rebounding into the net from the goalkeeper’s legs.  Bolan made the goal.