South Yorkshire Times September 14, 1968

Mexborough Escape in F.A. Cup-Tie as Denaby Miss Twice Near The End

Mexborough Town 1, Denaby United 1

Twice in the last five minutes Denaby United had the chance to put the issue beyond doubt in their F.A. Cup-tie with Mexborough Town at Hampden Road but first Senior and then Millington shot wide with the goal at their mercy—and so Mexborough Town lived to fight again.

But he would have been tough on Mexborough to have gone out of the competition after this classy show, but yet again it was their inability to get in on chances created which so nearly led to their downfall.

For much of the game Mexborough look the slicker outfit. Wing halves Wood and Toyne took an early hold of the midfield and used the ball to good purpose spraying their forwards with a shower of incisive balls which forced the Denaby defence back on their heels, yet despite their command Mexborough could not offer one shot of note until the 30^th minute, when library inside right Colley, playing in only his second game twice came close with long range efforts.

Weak finishing

After neat but laborious build ups Mexborough seemed to run out of ideas with the penalty area in sight. They paid the price in the 37th minute when Denaby opened the scoring. Another Mexborough move petered out on the right, the ball ran out to Whittaker, the winger broke quickly, and with the Mexborough defence rushing to position, he crossed low to see the unmarked Roddis completely beat ‘keeper Brunt with a fast rising shot from the edge of the box.

Denaby gave Mexborough a sharp lesson in the advantage of direct play and the home side had some uncomfortable moments just on half-time.