Bloody Brilliant
Worksop Town 5-0 King’s Lynn Town (National League North)
So, Harry Kane has won the Balon d’Or. I remember sitting at Wembley around seven or eight years ago watching him play, thinking to myself ‘he’s the best striker I’ve ever seen in an England shirt’ and wondering why he gets little recognition despite his ridiculous goals returns? I suppose the longer he’s been doing his business, the harder it has been to ignore, a deserved award for a humble and elegant footballer that represents himself, his family, and his country with pure dignity, his goalscoring speaks for itself.
I’m not sure who the best strikers are that I have seen at Worksop or King’s Lynn in the past? Recently Liam Hughes was smashing all sorts of goals in before moving to Cleethorpes Town, before that the Tigers had the likes of Tom Denton, Leon Mettam and Jack Muldoon who went on to have a good Football League career. As for the Linnets, I remember thinking the likes of Rob Duffy and Gregg Smith were always handfuls, but Malcolm Lindsey is their most prolific goalscorer ever. He was a regular net bulger in the 60’s and 70’s but fortunately, I’m far too young to have seen him play.
Today’s hot shots include Mason Bennett on loan at Worksop from Harrogate, whilst Lynn’s Jesse Nwabueze has seven goals this season, Carlton Ubaezuonu is another attacking handful at the level, Kwame Thomas is a new signing and former England youth international who has played in the football league, but none are quite at the level of Harry Kane or Balon d’Or though.
Paul Caddis is King’s Lynn manager, and his side are going well right now, fifth in the table, they are just five points off top but have drawn their last two games, the most recent of which a sorry scoreless affair at home to Southport.
Worksop, I watched recently at Buxton, Craig Parry’s Tigers are fourteenth in the table on seventeen points (four behind King’s Lynn) and have also drawn their last two, their most recent on Saturday ending 1-1 at Harborough Town in South Leicestershire.
Storm Boelo has seemingly past, the weather has been good today, tonight’s surface is the hard stuff so no risk of postponements, I’m off out the door for dusk, it’s a bit of a drive is Worksop, just 35 miles from my door, but it’s an hour and half if I go through Nottingham, so I'm instead towards Newark and the A1 which is just over the hour (for ten more miles), heading finally across the A57 and through Sherwood Forest before driving into town and pulling up on a housing estate close to Sandy Lane, where one of the old peoples bungalows already has their Christmas lights on.
The Venue
It’s lit up on the corner of a main road is the KC Sofas Stadium as I cross and hop through the car park where there’s a queue to get in. An old boy sat at the table next to the turnstiles (which are modern and indoors with yellow painted walls) lets me in, I walk through the entrance and behind the goal where the players are out doing their warm-ups, and a little 'rondo' to start their night.
The atmosphere is building as I walk to the main covered seating stand before finding an adequate spot not too obstructed by the posts that prop up the roof, I’m about to sit down as I see an old friend with blanket over his knees, so I join him and chat about all things football until pretty much the players come out to play.
It’s a warm evening, I don’t know why he’s brought his blanket tonight as I checked the weather before hand and knew it would be over ten degrees, so I’ve travelled light, woolly hat standard for this time of year but gillet under a windbreaker is about all I need over my casual scruffy Under Armour tracksuit.
Around 600 inside, the stand I’m in is a classic almost Greyhound Stadium vibe with curved yellow roof but it is low, only five rows high of seating with plenty of room available.
The rest of the place is modern, the plastic pitch caged in by mesh black fencing, new tin stands dotted around, to my left and straight across for standing, to the right is the quirky looking clubhouse in the corner with a huge tv-style scoreboard, most of the Tigers die-hards tend to stand around there.
The Game
I’m busy chatting so I hardly hear the line-ups read out but Worksop in yellow are a pretty settled starting eleven these days, Boyce at centre half (for Wilde) is the only change since I last watched the Tigers play.
King’s Lynn in navy and yellow have made a few changes from their scoreless draw with Southport on Saturday with Kwame Thomas starting in attack which means Carlton Ubaezuono drops down to the bench, Jahmari Lindsay replaces Hall-Johnson at left back whilst Harley Hamilton moves to the dugout seats as Tom Scott comes in, but it’s the more settled side of the two that settles quickest, which might be obvious, Worksop look on it tonight as they snap into the press and work harder than their opposition from the start, front foot football (like it was early on against Buxton) they take the lead when a cross from the left by Whitham bounces into that area of uncertainty (POMO) and Jordan Cropper pops up at the back post to stab home, perhaps the keeper should have claimed that one, instead of waiting for his defenders to take responsibility?
I’m disappointed with Lynn who have good players across the park but they aren’t showing it tonight, Worksop have started strong and they continue to push with Whitham shooting wide before Greaves races into the box to belt home a cannon which crashes down off the crossbar. It’s one way traffic and a well deserved two goal lead is taken into half time.
The Score
I’ve mentioned Michael Clunan as one to watch to my mate sitting beside me and he’s been off it tonight, less than five minutes played in the second half and he’s been robbed of possession, Oli Greaves is set through on goal and calmly makes it three for his second. Game over? Clunan stays down like he’s been shot, he gets medical attention and there’s a delay to the restart, perhaps he’s feigning injury to hide his embarrassment having been dispossessed? But as Clunan finally gets to his feet, another medical emergency this time in the crowd, credit to Ronnie Hollingshead in the King’s Lynn goal, he calls over the Ref and the physios race over, after a good seven or eight minutes, thankfully it’s panic over as parity is restored.
The game restarts and due to crazy FA rules Clunan still has to wait a further minute before he can rejoin the play, it’s flat for a good ten more before Paul Caddis decides he’s had enough. He makes five changes in one sitting, it’s been a stop start second 45.
Finally, some flow, the game now settled into a bit of a procession as Worksop test the King’s Lynn keeper with a few curved corners crossed into Hollingshead's domain, one of which is headed agonisingly wide by O’Malley who’s had a good game, the next one is headed in by Andrew Boyce for number four.
There’s a minute left of normal time as O’Malley then passes towards Ben Hatton who gets in on the act, the sub rounding things off with his first goal for the club, but there’s still a good 11 minutes to be added on. An away effort deep in injury time from outside the box clears the stand (and netting) behind the goal for some ironic cheers, as the home fans start to trickle out one old boy chunters to another “that’s the best I have seen us play this season. Bloody brilliant Worksop”.
The Stars
I’ll be honest, my focus was lost on chatting through the night which swayed my attention of watching every players usual off ball movement (I’m allowed the odd night off aren’t I?) but it was a good nine out of ten across the pitch style performance from Worksop, whilst for King’s Lynn it seemed that everybody involved, were just having a bad day, sometimes you just get nights like that in football (ask Arsenal).
Mason O’Malley impressed me at left back, he played on the front foot and linked well with Lewis Whitham who’s a lovely player, Worksop’s midfielders are all very good, Starcenko and Vaughan Redford both classy on the ball, whilst Liam Waldock who has had to bide his time, looks to be in some good form, he grew stronger through the night. Oli Greaves probably the man of the match, gliding in the ten position with a couple of goal contributions.
As for the away side, well beaten, as ever when I watch, Zak Mills he gave 110% whilst young Jahmari Lindsay at left back really impressed me. I wanted to see more from Jesse Nwabueze and when Harley Hamilton came on, he struggled to impose himself, a big midfielder with a bright future at this level, he'll have much better nights than tonight.
The Verdict
Are Worksop suddenly a dark horse for promotion this year? I really like what they are doing and the way they play is results based football that runs with a fundamental philosophy to this very division, powerful, energetic, hard working, but with end quality, they have a chance to gatecrash those challengers above.
One of which is King’s Lynn, who have now dropped down to ninth, Worksop in twelfth are just a point below, two points behind the playoff places, the ever tightest battled race for promotion in the National League North, is very much as it is year on year, on again.
The Teams
Worksop Town: Max Dearnley, Deegan Atherton, Andrew Boyce, Vaughan Redford, Alex Starcenko, Oliver Greaves (Ben Hatton 88), Lewis Whitham, Mason O’Malley, Jordan Cropper (Kris Moore 75), Liam Waldock (Sam Essien 84), Mason Bennett (Ryan Viggars 51).
King’s Lynn Town: Ronnie Hollingshead, Rhys Doherty, Zak Mills (Ethan Zachary 70), Michael Clunan (Josh McCammon 70), Ross Crane (Layton Love 70), Tom Scott (Harley Hamilton 70), Aaron Jones, Jesse Nwabueze, Ryan Tunnicliffe, Jahrami Lindsay, Kwame Thomas (Carlton Ubaezuono 70).
7:45pm Kick Off. Tuesday 27th October 2026, Sandy Lane, Worksop (att 634).
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