ASKERN Villa are in a race against time to prevent the club from going under, writes Paul Webster.
The Manor Way club’s latest crisis follows the postponement of last weekend’s scheduled home clash against Hemsworth Miners Welfare.
Villa got the thumbs up for the game to go ahead following a pitch inspection only to then be hit by the withdrawal of several players, forcing secretary Dave Hall to call the game off.
Manager Brian Johnston and Hall have done their upmost to keep the club going over the past few months but feel they do not have the same commitment from the players and have decided enough is enough.
Johnston has resigned, while Hall will step down this weekend.
It is understood that Villa informed the league’s committee of their intent to resign from the league at the weekend.
However. in a bid to help the club resolve their problems, the NCEL board agreed to suspend Villa’s fixtures for a week.
For the full story on Askern Villa’s race for survival, see this week’s Free Press.
Armthorpe Welfare’s slide continued with a narrow 3-2 defeat against promotion chasing Scarborough Athletic as Leo Fortune-West side slipped to a sixth home Premier Division defeat in nine.
Paul Ashton netted just two minutes before the break after Jamie Hollis had given the visitors a 13th minute lead.
A Craig Morley own goal saw Scarborough restore their advantage five minutes after the break with Tony Hackworth extending the lead on 73 minutes.
But by the time that James Walker converted a stoppage time penalty it came too late to affect the outcome and leaves Welfare without a win in the last seven league outings.
Maltby Main bounced back from their 3-1 midweek defeat at Staveley Miners Welfare, where they had led through Craig Gladwin’s 18th minute strike, to pick up another valuable point in a 1-1 draw at Glasshoughton Welfare.
Brian Cusworth rescued a point with a stoppage time leveller after Mat Stirland had given the hosts a 83rd minute lead.
The draw, however, was good enough to move six points clear of the relegation zone.
Rossington Main saw their hopes of a third straight win ended by promotion chasing Albion Sports as the visitors left Oxford Street with all three points from a 2-1 victory.
Albion took the lead on six minutes when a cross found Alex Cusack unmarked to side foot home back across the face of goal.
Main responded as Niall Doyle hit a superb 25-yard effort which brought the best out of the visitors’ keeper.
However, it was Albion that struck again in the 49th minute with a fine effort from McKoy Lyn from the edge of the box to double the advantage.
Rossington were back in the game two minutes later when Doyle’s free-kick was turned into his own net by defender Gary Tyson under pressure from Main’s John Tunney.
The hosts pressed with Brad Billam forcing the keeper into another fine save, while Doyle put a late chance high over the bar.