MA WHO?

Notts FA Minor Cup Final

MAFC 3 BINGHAM TOWN RESERVES 1

With Bingham Town Reserves reaching the County Minor Cup Final, I went to Hosiery Mills FC Ground as its not too far from where I live, as the ground is where the now extinct Sutton Town AFC used to play, now it belongs to the Hosiery Mills itself who have done a lot of developements since I last visited this ground.

On arrival, I met Mark Norwood who was one of the Assistant referees for the match and at the gate was greeted by Albert Greaves and Dennis, we was soon offered a cuppa by the Hosiery Mills staff who were very pleasant and on hand all around the ground throughout the evening.

I went to the Bingham changing room and wished them all the best from the Notts Senior League.

The game kicked off and the bright sunshine set and it soon became very cold, but on the pitch were two evenly matched sides, I asked several people what MAFC stood for and where they played and what league, but got about 8 different answers to my question. After the match, the manager and Sectretary Norma did explain and it was quite a long name and they play in a Saturday Morning Derby Church League, though based in Mansfield.

After 27 minutes, MAFC took the lead through a penalty by HUMPHRIES, Bingham pushed forward and looked promising with the team from Mansfield playing on the break and on 31 minutes, the Notts Senior League club were level with a penalty for themselves scored by HAYCOX.

After my half time cuppa that I needed to warm me up as it was getting colder but I ventured back outside and was soon chatting away as the snow began to chuck down in blizzard fashion, the lady turned out to be Mark Norwood's mum who Id met before.

After 71 minute, a corner by MAFC was taken and there was a appeal inside the area but play continued, infact the ball went out of play and a new ball came on to the pitch, which was cleared by Bingham Town to a opposing attacker who blasted over the bar, at this stage the Assistant Referee on the cubhouse side raised his flag and the referee went over, after a couple of seconds, the ref said Goal, to most peoples shock in the ground, so MAFC took a 2-1 lead.

Bingham seemed stunned by this along with most of the crowd but instad of getting on with the game, they lost concentration, whilst MAFC raised their game, there was then a incident in the MAFC penalty area where the ref booked both the Bingham sub and the MAFC goalkeeper and within minutes, the Bingham sub was appealing for a penalty and received a second yellow card as I think the ref felt it was a dive. This really angered the boys from Bingham and in injury time MAFC wrapped up the game with a breakaway goal to make it 3-1.

MAFC were the better side on the night and when I asked Norma after the game why they didnt join a Saturday afternoon League she replied the lads like playing on a Saturday Morning and spending time with family for the rest of the weekend.

Earlier in the day, Dave Wigley from Clidton All Whites FC poppeed in to see me with a few programmes for the charity stall at this weekends NSL GROUNDHOP and alsdo donated on behalf of his club £20 towards the blogs charity. After the match Mark Norwood also made a kind donation of £4.80p so the running total now stands at £851.05p