FA Vase First Round

Whitehead stoops to conquer
Gordon Foster, 4 October
Photos by Derek Bentley

Rainworth Miners Welfare 2

Deeping Rangers 1

RAINWORTH defender James Whitehead vindicated manager Rudy Funk’s decision to switch him up front when he came up with an 81st-minute winner against United Counties side Deeping Rangers, to send the Wrens into the next round of the Vase.
But the match, between the two fifth-placed clubs of their respective step five leagues could not provide the five-star entertainment that had been on view in Welfare’s 2-1 victory over Selby Town last Tuesday.
Both sides found it hard to come to terms with the swirling wind, which played a part when Mitchell Griffith’s 37th-minute equaliser for Rangers cancelled out Ant Lynam’s opening strike 10 minutes earlier.
And after an uninspiring second half the tie looked to be heading for extra time and a possible Tuesday replay until Whitehead’s headed winner—especially with both home strikers withdrawn.
The Wrens manager explained: “Sometimes you have to use your initiative and make these decisions. Ant Lynam was struggling with his back and Julian Topliss wasn’t quite on his game today, so both front lads were lacking what they had on Tuesday night when they were superb.
“So we made the changes and gave our skipper Lee Wilkinson a few minutes of action after his injury, and it worked for us.
“We made hard work of the win. You could see how Deeping approached the game with one man up top, and they made life difficult for us in the middle of the park.
“They held their line well defensively so well done to them for their organisation—they had clearly done their homework, which is good to see at our level.”
Funk made just one change to the starting line-up from Tuesday, re-instating Matt Draper into defence following his injury. But the injury was aggravated late in the first half leading to his withdrawal.
For Rainworth, Brendan Sweeney put in another classy performance which was head and shoulders above anything else on the park on the day, and he almost set up an eighth minute lead for the Wrens with some fine work on the right. However, the incoming Danny Naylor could not quite connect at the far post.
And in the 15th minute Cameron Fearon did not gain enough height almost under the bar to meet Simon Wright’s corner.
Rainworth looked the more dominant side at this stage, and Rangers keeper Lee Jordan did well to deny Sweeney after Matt Baxter had broken the offside on the left and switched the ball infield.
Sweeney then won the ball on the right and blazed a path between Ben Porter and Dan Hussey to set up Lynam whose low 12-yarder was again well saved.
Jordan also got a strong hand to the ball when Lynam cut in from the left to shoot at goal in the 27th minute, but this time it wasn’t quite strong enough and the keeper could not keep it out.
It was a deserved lead at this stage, but it lasted only 10 minutes. Then Porter tried his luck with a long range shot on the swirling wind, which made it hard for Mark Hales to hold. The keeper could only parry the ball downwards, and Mitchell Griffiths—probably Deeping’s best player on the day—was on hand to put away the rebound.
Four minutes before the break Draper pulled up and had to be replaced by Ian Streather, but either side could have taken the lead before half time.
First Topliss fed the ball down the right to Lynam who cut in. Jordan parried the initial shot and the striker could only put his follow-up behind off the outside of the near post.
At the other end Fearon came up with a well timed challenge, doing just enough to force Dan Jacobs to finish wide from Griffiths’ astute low cross.
The third quarter of the match was notable only for its inaction, with nothing at all of note until the 66th minute when Luke Kennedy’s 20-yard pot shot was too high.
That, though, signalled a step up in pace, and more excellent work by Sweeney won a corner from which substitute Jermain Hollis’ shot took a deflection off John Paul Duncliffe, wrong-footing his keeper who did well to twist and fall on the ball as it arrowed towards the net.
Deeping broke quickly from that, and Hales came off the better in a one-on-one with Jacobs who had made ground down the flank and run in.
James Dean’s diving header from a Deeping corner took enough of a deflection to go for another flag kick, and Porter lifted a 20-yard free kick too high as for a time the visitors looked rather the more likely to snatch a winner.
Rainworth introduced Wilkinson in the 78th minute, pushing Whitehead forward to partner Hollis up front, and it paid dividends three minutes later.
Sweeney, who minutes earlier had seen a venomous 20-yarder brilliantly turned over the bar, launched the move with a visionary ball to Wright on the left, and Whitehead met the cross with a stooping header to settle the tie.
Rainworth might have added to their lead, Hollis firing an angled drive from the left of the box just past the far post, and Danny Naylor profiting from a rebound off referee James Thornhill in the area in stoppage time but seeing Porter clear his effort off the line.

RAINWORTH: Hales, Fearon, Wright, Whitehead, Albery, Draper (Streather 41), Baxter, Naylor, Topliss (Wilkinson 78), Lynam (Hollis 54), Sweeney. Subs not used: Charlesworth, Smith.

DEEPING: Jordan, Duncliffe, Porter, Griffiths, Holyoak, Hussey (Stevens 83), Kennedy, Dean, Paul, Musgrove, Jacobs. Subs not used: Goode, Cornell.

REFEREE: James Thornhill of Ilkeston.
ATTENDANCE: 118.

GOALS: Rainworth—Lynam 27; Whitehead 81. Deeping—Griffiths 37.

MAN OF THE MATCH: Brendan Sweeney.