Bad night for Glasshoughton Welfare as Retford United hit them for six

Bad night: Rob Hunter

Glasshoughton Welfare 1-6 Retford United

By James Grayson (Twitter: @jamesAgrayson)

Glasshoughton Welfare continue to remain without a home win so far in the Toolstation NCEL Premier Division season after much-fancied Retford United romped to an impressive away victory at Leeds Road.
Glasshoughton manager Rob Hunter said it was “a horrible and frustrating night”.
Profilic striker Liam Wilkin capitalised on nearly Glasshoughton mistake to score four times, with his team-mates Reece Thompson and substitute Richard Medcalf adding the extras.
Dalton Harris was able to pull a goal back for Welfare in the 88th minute, but Hunter gave an honest assessment of the heavy defeat.
“I think to lose 6-1 at home is a horrible feeling for the club, it is horrible for the players, but when you make as many mistakes in a game against a team like that then that is what is going to happen to you,” he told Sports Performer.

“Retford are a very good side and they probably had eight chances in the game and took six of them. I actually thought in the first half there was nothing in the game and it should have been 0-0.

“Two bad defensive errors have punished us and if you’re going to give the ball away in the penalty area after 20 minutes and then 30 minutes and go 2-0 down you’re going to struggle for the rest of the game.
“We came in at half-time and thought we worked hard and played well and unfortunate not to be at 0-0. We started really well in the second half and just conceded after another mistake, another mistake and another mistake and it is so frustrating. What a horrible and frustrating night it turned out to be.
“The actual performance, let’s put it into perspective. The attitude was good and the work rate was good. The all-round performance I would say wasn’t bad, but the amount of individual errors we made as a team was bad.

“We got punished, we got punished for every mistake. Any mistake and they thumped it in the back of the net, every single one.”

Going into the game, Hunter had hoped his team would finally win at home at the sixth attempt having lost the previous five.

Hunter even had Venezulan winger Hiliar Serrao, believed to be the first Venezulan to play for Glasshoughton, in his side for the first time.

But, the signs for the elusive win weren’t good as early as the ninth minute when Retford opened the scoring. Matt Donnelly made the mistake and it gifted Wilkin, who made his name playing for Winterton Rangers, took full advantage.
Wilkin nipped in again before the half-hour with a curling effort that gave Glasshoughton goalkeeper Paul Hagreen no chance.
Glasshoughton came to life at the start of the second half and enjoyed a ten minute spell in control. Russ Headley and Liam Tuck both had speculative efforts that flew wide.

But, when leading goalscorer Calum Ward then fell to the ground in an off-the-ball incident, which referee Mick Denton took no action against anyone, it stopped Welfare’s momentum and Retford scored the pivotal third goal against the run of play.

Thompson was through on goal and he rounded Hagreen before sliding the ball into the net. Glasshoughton then collapsed during a 12 minute period.
Wilkin secured the match-ball by scoring a similar goal to Thompson’s. Thompson then turned provider by unselfishly passing to Wilkin, who had a simple tap-in, for number five.
A minute later on the 81 mark, Medcalf turned his marker to score to complete Retford’s scoring.
For the final few minutes, the Retford defence went to sleep and allowed Glasshoughton back into the match and after a couple of moments of pressure, Welfare scored.

Greig McGrory played a great ball to the back-post and Harris was there to head home his first goal for Glasshoughton since joining two weeks ago.

Glasshoughton now have to dust themselves down and prepare for high-flying Tadcaster Albion’s visit on Saturday. Tadcaster are 13 league games unbeaten and sit in third place.

Glasshoughton Welfare: Hagreen, Beaston, Edwards, Tuck, Low, Donnelly, Lucas, Young, Ward (McGrory 68), Serrao (Harris 68), Headley (Corley 68). Sub unused: Chappell.

Retford United: Barford, Stannard, Severn, Walkden, Sanderson (Lucas 70), Fisher, O’Neill (captain) (Cooper 15), Thompson, Wilkin, Muirhead, Johnson (Medcalf). Subs unused: Holmes, Smith.

Referee: M Denton (Todmorden)

Attendance: 75

Man of the match: Liam Wilkin (Retford United)