Thackley 6 Maltby Main 2 (North Counties East League, Saturday 3rd September 2022)
"I've got to be honest," my mate says as we drink our first pint of the day, "I'm already leaning towards staying in the pub."
We've just got our first pints of the afternoon in at the Great Northern pub in Thackley and are watching the second half of a Merseyside derby that's not so much about as dull as watching paint dry as sitting around waiting for it to peel.
"Nope," I say, "We're going. It's become a running joke this and I'm determined that we can make it to a Thackley match."
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago in the “report” of the Guiseley game that wasn't that we don't have a great track record when it comes to getting out of the pub and going to games. Even when I mentioned to my wife this morning what the plan was, she burst out laughing and said "I don't believe you, send me a photo as proof or I'm just gonna assume you've just stayed in the pub again!"
But we manage it. I dunno if it was the fact that the weather today's actually pretty much just right for watching football (no rain but not too hot either) or the fact that after the snorefest that was the Everton vs Liverpool match that whatever Thackley served up HAD to be more entertaining than that. Interestingly I did send my missus a photo. No response. One nil to me I think.
Thackley are based up in the leafy northern suburbs of Bradford, just a mile or so up the road from where I live in Shipley making it my local club by default (well, there's another one which is probably about equal distance and we'll deal with them next week). The club were founding members of the North Counties Eastern League in 1983 and have remained there ever since. I think it's safe to say that there'll be quite a few NCEL match reports in this blog as the Bradford area has a LOT of clubs at this level. It's a bit odd really - obviously you've got City in the football league then Park Avenue in the Conference North but then there's a huge gap of three divisions* down to the NCEL where suddenly you get Thackley, Eccleshill, Silsden, Campion and Albion Sports (not to mention Steeton and Ilkley Town who play in the North West Counties League which is at the same feeder level...but that's a whole other complicated kettle of fish for another time).
(* - if you really want to stretch things, Farsley Celtic in the Conference North and Guiseley and Brighouse Town in the Northern Premier League are all one postal district outside the city boundaries but we haven't got all day here...)
Thackley play their home games at Dennyfield just on the edge of the green belt with Buck Wood which runs from the edge of Thackley village down to the Leeds-Liverpool canal just opposite. Similar to Guiseley's Nethermoor ground (albeit a smaller version), it's a nice picturesque ground in a rural setting and sitting in the gentle early autumn sunshine with a pint from the clubhouse (the clubhouse is actually outside the ground but the guy on the turnstile was happy to let us nip out to grab beers from there - "It's alright lads, I'll remember you both"), it makes you realise that sometimes the best football experiences come from being away from the big crowds further up the league (sorry, non-league football cliche number 728 there I know)
Neither Thackley nor their opponents Maltby Main (Maltby is between Doncaster and Sheffield just off the A1) had got off to a great start to the season with the Dennyboys starting the day in 18th place, two below their visitors. It didn't exactly promise to be a classic but you never know. The first thing we noticed as the players ran out was that Maltby were a proper Land of the Giants team - I'm not sure they had a single player who was under six foot tall. Their number 15, playing at centre-half, in particular looked as if he'd been lying on a table in a scientist's lab until five minutes ago when someone had stuck a couple of electrodes on to the bolts on his neck to kickstart his pre-match warm-up.
Thackley actually looked half decent at the outset with the strikers firing in a couple of shots at Maltby's Kasper Schmeichel lookalike keeper but it was the away side who took the lead with about 5 minutes gone. Maltby's winger fired in a cross which wrong-footed everyone including the Thackley keeper to creep over the line. Thackley's response was to pile upfield for an equaliser but unfortunately in doing so they left themselves open at the back and Maltby promptly doubled their advantage from a quick counter which their striker clinically headed home.
I was fearing the worst at this point - I'd visited Thackley once before in the middle of January last season to see them play Penistone Church. In that match, Thackley had played well until a collision midway through the first half had seen their keeper stretchered off injured (he subsequently spent the night in hospital). Unsurprisingly, they were a bit shellshocked by that and crumbled to a 3-1 defeat.
Which made what came next against Maltby all the more remarkable. Clearly stung, Thackley quickly subbed off their number 2 (who I actually thought had been one of their better players at that point) and I'm not sure what instructions the sub came on the pitch with but there's no way you could have predicted how the rest of the game would turn out at that point.
The comeback started a few minutes after the second goal when the Dennyboys won a free kick 35 yards out and their number 11 Aiden Chippendale promptly stepped up to smash an absolute rocket of a shot into the Maltby net. I thought I recognised Chippendale’s name and it turns out he’s had more northern clubs than Lee Westwood, having started his career at Huddersfield in the late noughties then moving on to spells at Bradford (both City and Avenue), York, Accrington, Chester, Stalybridge and Bury (both the original club and the phoenix one) among several others. By halftime, the score was level as Thackley were awarded a penalty after Maltby's keeper collided with Chippendale which Thackley's number 9 Greaves dispatched. 2-2 at half time and a pretty good match but I don't think anyone could have foreseen what was coming next.
The second half started with Thackley dominating after an early spell of Maltby pressure and on the hour they went in front as Chippendale lashed a ferocious shot into the net from the edge of the area. Chippendale then got his hat-trick and Thackley's fourth with almost an exact replay of Maltby's first goal as a cross into the area deceived everyone and ended up the back of the net.
By now, Maltby were pretty much falling apart and Chippendale added his fourth and Thackley's fifth just before being subbed off with an absolute rocket of a shot from outside the area which the keeper couldn't do a thing about. Definitely the goal of the game but Thackley weren't finished yet as some keystone cops defending from Maltby in injury time allowed sub Murphy to tap in at the far post to make it 6-2.
"Tell you what," says my mate as we wander back into Thackley and towards the Great Northern for a quick pint before heading off our separate ways, "We should definitely do this again". I suspect this won't be the last match report from Dennyfield this season.
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