Gainsborough Trinity v Worksop Match Review

 Gainsborough Trinity v Worksop Match Review

A win, a clean sheet and a beautiful performance from Russ Wilcox’s Gainsborough puts an end to their winning drought with a massive 3 points against promotion pushing Worksop Town in the A57 Derby. 

A huge credit to returning goalkeeper, Dylan Wharton, who played a huge part in the win and clean sheet for the Blues. The Sheffield United loanee began the season with the Holy Blues, playing in 11 games before picking up a horrific injury. After being told he may never play football again and being out for over 2 months, Wharton returned to the pitch for the huge match up. A performance to be proud of, showing how important his presence is to the team moving forward. 

Before the opening goal, Worksop were arguably the better team and had chances. Multiple great saves by Wharton and a beautiful display of defending denied an early lead for the away side. Their best chance came from George Taft, his header was cleared off the line wonderfully just 23 minutes into the game by Lewis Butroid. 

The home side opened the scoring in the 38th minute, Lewis Butroid the scorer, as he curled a free kick home in exquisite fashion to finally put Trinity ahead after five games of being the first side to concede in a match. 

Just before half-time, Jay Rollins attempted to square a ball into the area, almost guaranteeing a goal but the man of the match, Bailey Conway, made a wonderful, heroic interception and to stop Deegan Atherton’s ball from materialising with a great header to clear away from goal. 

Half time- GTFC 1 - 0 WTFC 

The second half began and Gainsborough had their backs up against the walls. Some great defensive work and even made a couple of chances themselves showed the intensity that Wilcox’s side came out with. 

Worksop’s number one, Seb Mawolski, also made two great saves in the 50th minute, first a save from Declan Howe’s low driven shot, hit from a tight angle, then an even better save from Lewis Butroid’s chance, as he cut in, with room inside the box, and Mawolski tipped it round the post and out for a corner.

Trinity’s first change came in the 55th minute, as Danny Devine replaced Jack Moore-Billam. Just 5 minutes later, Worksop’s Paul Green had to be substituted due to an injury, being replaced by, ex Scunthorpe United full back, Colin Daniel. 

In the 64th minute, Fraser Preston doubled the Blues’ lead. After a small game of pinball in the box, the ball dropped perfectly for Fraser Preston as he volleyed it past Mawolski, an emotional goal for the ex-Scotland youth as he returns from a long wait on the sidelines. 

In the final 10 minutes, Worksop had many chances but insisted on trying to pass the ball home rather than pulling the trigger, a constant theme throughout making themselves architects of their own downfall.

The final whistle blew, the Gainsborough fans cheered. A brilliant home win against such a great team after such a horrible run of form. 

Wilcox described the game as a “great performance” from his side all round but they need to “keep feet on the ground” and not get too carried away with things. Ecstatic with Preston being back, he highlighted that he “has the quality that we need”, as he scored his first league goal of the season. 

The Blues currently sit 17th, 7 points above the relegation zone and will be looking at building momentum to find some good form and turn around the below par performances from December. A huge 18 games to go, Trinity will be looking for as many points as they can get.