MONTAGU HOSPITAL CHARITY CUP FINAL 2021, JOKER FC 1-2 SWINTON ATHLETIC, ATTENDANCE: 511
On a roasting hot Bank Holiday Monday, I once again headed to Yorkshire for my football fix.The Montagu Cup is an invitational competition for teams in and around the Mexborough area. It was created 124 years ago to raise funds for the local Montagu cottage hospital. The first winners in 1897 were Ecclesfield.
The final is traditionally held on Easter Monday but like most things in these Covid times, the competition has been delayed a few weeks.
Today's final was between Joker FC and Swinton Athletic. Swinton, of the the Sheffield and Hallamshire League, are one of the most successful teams in the history of this competition and hold the record of 7 wins, jointly, with Wombell Main and Mexborough Main. A win today would see them defend their title, after victory in 2020, and also claim the record outright.
Joker FC, who play in the Rotherham & District Sunday League Premier Division, were looking to win the trophy for the second time in three years, after beating Wombwell Main 6-0 back in 2019. It promised to be a decent encounter.
The game, as is traditional, took place at Hampden Road in Mexborough. There have been three football clubs to originate from Mexborough, the last of which, Mexborough Town, folded in 1993. The ground is shared with the cricket club and has a large seated stand on one side. In recent years Swinton Athletic have been using it as their home ground as it meets ground grading criteria. The other sides of the ground are made up of large banks of terracing.
I was speaking to other groundhoppers at the game and they were telling me that Swinton may be going back to their traditional home next season so the ground could be laying dormant next season, which would be such a shame for a superb set up.
Clearly I wasn't the only one anticipating a good game today and there was a tremendous 500+ crowd in attendance. The game was a tight affair. Joker were the marginally better team in the first half but their play in the final third let them down.
As the game wore on Swinton began to look dangerous and once they took the lead through a Matt Thornton header (60) there was likely to be only one winner. Two minutes later Thornton doubled Swinton's advantage with a superb chip and finish over the advancing goalkeeper before Joker got a consolation goal through Joseph Austin with virtually the last kick of the match.
There is a blue plaque on the clubhouse wall at Mexborough
paying tribute to Eric Brook, who was Manchester City's record
goalscorer until 2017, when he was overtaken by Sergio Aguero.
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