Thackley travelled to Armthorpe on Saturday looking to keep their current position of third place in the league, which of course needed a victory. The Wellie were languishing second from bottom of the table but had picked up recently and had won four of their five points in October. Thackley made three changes from their midweek encounter with Bridlington. Jerry White and Dan Broadbent returned after missing the match with knocks and Josh Snowden came back into the centre of defence.

It was a rather uninspiring opening forty five minutes, with few glimpses of controlled football to give the sparse number of spectators any moments of excitement. The first action of note came on seventeen minutes, when Armthorpe squandered a chance to go ahead. Matt Convey palmed away a dangerous cross from the right to the feet of Liam Radford on the edge of the box but he blasted the ball over the bar. Around the half hour mark, Thackley had their best spell of the half, Dan Broadbent had a goal bound effort blocked and Adam Stevens came out to smother a George Eustance shot after he latched onto a Ben Joyce flick. A couple of minutes later, Eustance again tested the home keeper; it followed a throw in, Stevens this time parrying his well struck shot. Another couple of Eustance efforts, just before the break, were easily dealt with by the home keeper before referee Duncan Street brought the first half to a close.

Half time: Armthorpe Welfare 0 Thackley 0.

The first five minutes of the second half produced as much action as the whole of the first but still no goals. In the opening minute, Radford turned on the edge of the box, his low drive went narrowly wide. Almost immediately, Stevens under hit a free kit in the home penalty area, Eustance pounced, took the ball into the box but put it past the post. Three minutes in, and Convey was at full stretch to claw away a Gary Collier shot which was heading for the top corner. Convey then did well to push away a header from the resultant kick. Thackley began to get on top and Ben Joyce saw his shot deflected wide. The Dennyboys took the lead midway through the half with a well taken goal. A nice little run down the left from Eustace, he pulled the ball back to Broadbent and you could see from the time it left his boot it was destined for a goal. A couple of minutes later he limped off to be replaced by Simon Rodriguez. Thackley scored a second goal with fifteen minutes remaining, again it came from a Eustance run down the left, this time it was Ryan Farrell that slotted home from close range. Pat McGuire went close to increasing the lead two minutes later, he got his head to another Eustance cross but a good reaction save from Stevens denied the Thackley skipper his third goal of the season. A good run from Steve Garner ended with Jerry White deflecting his shot wide, was the home side’s only chance of reducing the arrears. Thackley played out the final minutes and for the fourth time this season had kept a clean sheet and won away from home.

Full time: Armthorpe Welfare 0 Thackley 2.

After a pretty even, rather uneventful first half, Thackley made their possession count in the second with two well taken goals.

Handsworth Parramore are the visitors to Dennyfield on Tuesday night. The Amber Parras are fifth in the table with games in hand of the teams above them. They include in their squad ex Thackley player Tom Dugdale, we all know what Tom can do given the chance.

Armthorpe Welfare team: Stevens; Garner; Precious; Bonser; Gibbons; Waldron; Collier; Aspinall (C); Lyon (Williams); Radford (Yousefi); McLaughlin (Brigham).

Thackley team: Convey; Rouse; White; McGuire (C); Bentham; Snowden; Farrell; Whiteley; Broadbent (Rodriguez 68 mins); Joyce; Eustance. Subs not used: Howe; Foulds; Wilson.

Thackley scorers: Dan Broadbent 66 mins; Ryan Farrell 75 mins.

Attendance: 54.

Referee: Duncan Street

Photo: Dan Broadbent scorer of opening goal..