Tividale Football Club

Season Review Part Three

2nd January 2016 to 19th March 2016

The year ended with the shock news that Joint Manager Ross Thorpe was leaving his position with immediate effect following the home Daventry defeat. But the club was pleased to announce that Spiller was staying on and he took full charge ahead of the Romulus game

January saw us play 3 games and lose another 3 to the weather. We lost the New Year game in artic conditions at Belper 3-0. Poor Spiller must have regretted his decision to stop on the week before as we travelled to Belper with literally only 11 available players and of them only two defenders. But those 11 men were superb and although dead on their feet they never give up.

We then did not play again for another three weeks until we went away at Rugby and in a poor first half we were already a goal down when we were reduced to 10 men as Lewis Wright was sent off for denying a goal scoring opportunity a little harsh we felt as he was some 30 yards from goal and with defenders around him. Mark Danks then equalised with our only shot on target in the game at the start of the second half and then the 10 men defended like their lives depended on it for the point.

The month ended with a Tuesday night trip to Gresley and a 2-1 defeat.

The game kicked off in some of the most miserable conditions of the season and as the game went on the weather, the pitch and the mood of the few Tividale spectators all deteriorated. As the rain became torrential and the wind blew at gale force Tividale were always struggling but the Gresley second and winning goal did nothing to help the mood as no one in the ground could understand how the scorer could have been that far offside and not flagged.

February came and we lost Mark Danks to Romulus. Yet even though we were still bottom the month brought with it new hope of at least cutting the gap as the teams just above us were also finding it hard to get points on the board and Chris Sterling was still averaging a phenomenal goal every other game for a side bottom of the league. We earned a 2-2 draw on our trek away against Goole. This again was a game that we could put down as 2 points dropped as we were 2-1 up deep into injury time when we had numerous chances to clear a goalmouth scramble and failed allowing the home side to share the points. The game saw the debut of Bradley Smith and the forming of the Barnes/Smith centre back partnership. Next up was Spalding and another draw this time 1-1. The squad was now beginning to settle down and we were now playing some decent football. Then came a 3-3 draw against Market Drayton where again we missed the chance to earn a long awaited win.

We ended the month with the signature of the returning Matt Jukes and our 11th draw and first clean sheet in the league this season. This came in a dour 0-0 draw at home to Stocksbridge. The only highlight was when Lewis Wright cleared the ball off the line with his hand but the referee waived play on.

Now into March and we were completely outplayed by a very good Coalville Town side going down 3-1 at their place. Lewis Wright also moved on after this game and we brought in Conor Price from the reserves to replace him at right back. A resurgent but still relegation threatened Carlton Town where our next visitors and we gave them a big leg up in confidence with an inept performance in a 3-0 defeat. The news that Daventry Town would resign at the end of the season and be placed bottom of the league was now confirmed and common knowledge. So now it was just one team to go down

Tividale Football Club

Season Review Part Four – Tomorrow