Tomorrow night the Badgers face Staveley Miners Welfare Reserves in the Quarter Final of the Floodlit Cup. It’s a crucial game for Retford after crashing out of the Buckingham Insurance Cup last week, when Sherwood Colliery was the first team to beat the Badgers since November. Liam hopes his team can get back to winning ways and pick up some silverware this season, this game is a big opportunity to do so. Yesterday the Badgers signed Ben Thornton, the former Hallam, Parkgate and Maltby Main Centre Forward. Ben has been brought in to replace Zach Casburn who departed the Club on Friday to join Retford FC. We wish Zach all the best at his new club. Ben will unfortunately be ineligible to play against Staveley due to registration rules. But he will be available for Saturday’s trip to the Keepmoat, where AFC Bentley currently play their games due to their pitch being unplayable for the foreseeable future.
The last time we played Staveley Reserves was certainly a frustrating one, The Badgers went two nil up early in the first half after goals from Mark West and Cory Goodwin. However in the second half the tables turned and they scored two through Norman and Snell. Meaning the game ended as a draw. After some good results since the New Year, Staveley have climbed the table and they now sit in 9th. They’ve beaten both Askern and Dronfield 5-1 and just lost out to second place Dinnington in a game that ended 4-3. The Trojans goal difference is also impressive, they have a +9 while the teams around them have minus goal differences. This may be due to them having three out of the top 15 goal scorers in the league. Alex Sanderson has scored 15, Reece Clegg is on 13 and Kane Snell has 10 to his name.
The draw for the semi-finals of this competition was done last night. We got a home draw to the only other team in our league that is left in the competition, Collingham. Tomorrow night’s game will be recorded by ‘Keys to Football’ who video a lot of the teams from around our area. We are looking forward to greeting them to Cannon Park and seeing the highlights of what should be a great game. Let’s hope the Badgers bounce back tomorrow and secure that place in the semi-final. Up The Badgers.