Retford United 2-1 Worksop Town – Unibond Premier

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On Saturday 26th September I visited Retford United. They were playing local rivals Worksop Town in the Unibond Premier division. It was a local derby and with a bit of singing between rival fans and a crowd of 576 it made quite a good atmosphere.

Retford United’s home Cannon Park has got to be the hardest ground in England to find. After arriving in Retford, a small town in Nottinghamshire, roughly 25 minutes before kick off hoping to be able to have a look round before kick off we soon found out that the ground it outside of Retford in almost the middle of nowhere. After lots of driving around we finally arrived 5 minutes late.

The ground looked very basic with no real stand and just a small seating area down one side of the pitch. However due to the fact it was a lovely sunny day we were fine just standing watching the game from pitch side (though I would fancy going when it’s raining as there’s no real cover).

Luckily we hadn’t missed anything major in those 5 minutes and almost as soon as we arrived Retford took the lead when Terry Barwick stuck the ball in the net from close range. Worksop equalised soon after though when a misunderstanding between Retford’s keeper and defender Michael Simpkins ended up with Simpkins flicking a header over his own keeper and into the net to level the match at 1-1.

That’s how it stayed until half time. During the break we walked all around the ground and went into the club shop. The club shop was not particularly big but was nicely set up with various Retford United items for sale. Fortunatly despite our late arrival there were still a few programmes left and we bough one along with a Retford United postcard!

Colin Marrison put Retford back a head on the 63rd minute when he ran into the area and slotted the ball past the keeper into the bottom corner. After that Worksop had most of the chances but failed to put the game away and Retford saw the game out 2-1 to beat their local rivals.

I had a good time in Retford and the match was good quality. The ground is a little basic but that didn’t matter for us with the weather being so nice. See below for photos.

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