DRONFIELD RISE TO THE HEADY HEIGHTS OF SEVENTH

DRONFIELD TOWN 2 V WINTERTON RANGERS 0
NCEL 1 @ STONELOW ROAD
8 SEPTEMBER 2015 7.45PM

ENTHUSIASTIC TRAINING PRE MATCH FOR DTFC

Dronfield Town shot up to seventh in the NCEL 1 table following this two nil defeat of Winterton featuring a goal in each half.  The visitors with new manager Lee Hastings in charge following his instalment this week following a heavy loss to AFC Mansfield.
As ever the visit was now by the local train to Dronfield which was as ever pretty full but with a 7 minute journey a seat was not a necessity.  Luckily being first off there was time to get a nice picture of the station and an overview of the surrounding area.

THE NEW JOLLY FRIAR

The Jolly Friar in its new format was first point of call to sample a nice portion of cod and chips before ambling along to Stonelow Rd a couple of notice boards were devoured, along with the chips, first one showing an interesting advert for The Hilltop Club who are having a visit from Paul Daniels and the lovely Debbie.   The second notice board showed a nice selection of home fixtures for Dronfield Town, good to see them out and about in the town.

PAUL AND DEBBIE AT THE HILLTOP

 Also while on Stonelow Rd a liveried takeaway car had a lovely little sticker on the back made me laugh and get out the camera much to the amusement of locals who wondered why I was taking a picture of the bumper of the vehicle.

LAUGH, I NEALRY DROPPED MY CHIPS-LOCAL TAKEAWAYS CAR

Arival at DTFC an hour before kick off was warm from the officials and it was good to catch up with them along with Craig Butler Town's manager.
Also in attendance tonight was a trio from AFC Mansfield Pete Craggs secretary, Rudy Funk manager and Chairman Andrew Saunders.
Night games are now proving difficult with the loss of light so no match action pcitures but hopefully a few different shots from the evening in tonight's blog.  Its always difficult to cover something different especially having covered DTFC a couple of weeks ago and at the end of last season too.

DTFC DUG OUTS PROUDLY DISPLAYING NEW CLUB SPONSOR BRETTEX SITE SERVICES SIGN

The game tonight saw Dronfield for some reason, dry cleaning probably, play in their away kit of Yellow shirts and black shorts.
A scrappy first half was producing little of free flowing football not at times helped by an over fussy referee who seemed to stop the game at very regular intervals when a little bit less intervention may have helped the spectacle.

DTFC CAPTAIN JOE NAYLOR IN PRE MATCH WARM UP!

 On 37 minutes though after an increasing amount of Dronfield pressure the opening goal went to the home side when Lewis Naylor smashed home a penalty after Jack Start had upended Jamie Willis.
Just before half time though home keeper Steven Booth was alert as he raced out to tip over Jack Blendell's attempted lob.
The second half saw captain Joe Naylor see his effort cleared off the line and then Naylor had a curler well saved by visiting keeper Adam Stevens.
At the other end Booth had to be alert when he pushed away Blendell's header to deny the visitors an equaliser.
With 7 minutes remaining substitute Harley Wilson hit one from the edge of the box that visiting keeper Stevens push round for a corner form it Wilson turned provider with a floating kick that Naylor leaped to head home.

DRONFIELD MANAGER CRAIG BUTLER

A good 3 points for Dronfield which pushes them to 7th in the table and with a win at Lincoln Moorland on Saturday were they suffered a disappointing loss they would have been 4th, although I guess if you are manager Craig Butler he will be happy that the club are in a good position to build on an enterprising start.
The last train from Dronfield station thankfully secured and within a few minutes base station was arrived following a nice evening at Stonelow Rd watching Dronfield and Winterton.  With a crowd of 46, not large but good by Dronfield standards hopefully more will pop along to take a look at a promising start given that today Sheffield FC and England were live on TV this was an encouraging turn out.

DRONFIELD STATION OVERVIEW