Nottinghamshire Boxing Day derby excites crowd
A crowd of 330 fans turned out to be the victors as they attended a match in mucky conditions to witness a thrilling 2-2 draw in an entertaining Nottinghamshire Boxing Day derby.
A crowd of 330 fans were the eventual victors as they turned up in mucky conditions to witness a thrilling 2-2 draw in an entertaining Nottinghamshire Boxing Day derby.
It was a tale of one town, and two teams as Newark Town travelled to Harrowby on the outskirts of Grantham to take on Newark and Sherwood United in the United Counties League Premier Division North football competition.
The visiting Blues were probably regarded as slight favourites in the step five showdown due to their superior position in the league table before the first whistle blew.
However, it would be Romaine Graham's home side who would establish early dominance and set the pace.
United came out swinging as they played a free-flowing form of football that saw them fluid in attack and applying pressure upon the visitor's goal.
They were rewarded in the 20th minute as Luke White converted a lovely freekick that dodged the hastily constructed wall of town's defence and went on to beat the Blue's keeper.
The solitary goal put Newark and Sherwood United ahead at the break.
There was no doubt in the mind of regular attendees and fans of Newark Town that their gaffer Luke Parsons would give one of his instrumental talks at half-time to implore his side to turn the tide.
Liam Moran had different ideas though as soon after the restart he doubled his side's lead and fired one home off a corner.
Down by two - the Blues showed their fighting spirit and proactively looked to close the gap.
Joe Braithwaite halved the deficit five minutes after Moran had put the hosts second on the board with a goal in the 53rd minute.
Ten minutes later, Lucus Cotterill hit a beautiful strike from way out to tie the game up 2-2.
The two Newark sides battled it out with Town's top goalscorer of all time Lewis Chambers subbing on and applying pressure but the score would remain the same at the final whistle.
Both teams went off the field with a well-deserved point, the hosts put in a good performance against play-off contenders and the visitors came back from 2-0 down to tie up the match.