The pressure is all on unbeaten leaders Swinton Athletic ahead of the big Sheffield & Hallamshire County Senior League Premier Division clash at Wombwell Main, according to star Main striker Danny Frost.
Last season’s ‘champions’ Swinton haven’t lost in the league since April 2019 – ironically a defeat to Wombwell – and they have won all their seven matches so far this season going into the final match of 2020 where they could complete an unbeaten year.
Frost, because of a longer lay-off than his team-mates is training around the clock to convince Wombwell chief Terry Simon he is fit enough to be given an on-pitch view, expects Swinton to be desperate to avoid skidding on ice before the curtains are drawn on the year.
“We haven’t played since I watched them through the bedroom window (31st October) and they played last Saturday (when they beat Houghton Main 5-0),” Frost told Non League Yorkshire.
“They are a strong outfit. I’ve not played against them but I’ve watched them a few times and they are very solid and compact and hard to break down. They’re lively and smart upfront so we have to be on it at the back.
“We’re looking forward to the challenge. Preparation is not what we would have liked it to have been. We’d have liked to have played a few games before playing top of the league but it is how it is this year.
“It is a game where we have nothing to lose in. Preparation has not been brilliant, they’re top of the league and we’re underdogs. There’s no pressure on us. We just have to give it our all.
“Pressure is always on them because they’re top of the league and everyone wants to beat them. I’ve been in that situation loads of time as I’ve played for teams everyone wants to beat.
“I presume they’ll have the thought in the back of their heads that if they don’t lose they’ll be unbeaten for the whole year. I’m sure their gaffer will probably be saying ‘look lads this is the last one to make that achievement of not been beaten all year’. It would be a fantastic achievement for them as it is the tightest the league has ever been.”
Wombwell have only played five league games during the heavily disrupted campaign, winning three and losing two. The Iceman has previously said he wants a title push and beating Swinton would clearly send out a message. Frost, though, disagrees.
“I don’t think it would be a statement,” he said.
“Almost everybody is beating each other and the old saying of ‘get to Christmas and be in the top half because you’re halfway there’, isn’t the case this year.
“I saw that Dodworth beat High Green Villa 8-1. We had a really close game with High Green Villa in September and I thought they were a very good side. You don’t know what’s gone off like injuries, players isolating.
“You can’t read into anything at the minute. It is going to be about battling throughout the season and about the togetherness and the team which is going to go away to Stocksbridge on a Tuesday night and put a performance on.
“If we beat Swinton there’s nothing to read into it. It is not going to be a case of ‘oh Wombwell have beat Swinton, they’re going to win the league’.”
The ex-Shaw Lane Aquaforce forward said: “We were losing 4-3 at one stage so I wasn’t cheering, I was shouting.
“I got Covid so I had to isolate for two weeks and before the game I FaceTimed Terry and said ‘I’ve got four Stella’s lined up for each goal’.
“We had a bit of a crack with that and it was great to see them score a last minute winner. When we got the penalty I didn’t think to film it at first but I was checking my bets on my phone and then I thought ‘I’ll get a video of this’. Fortunately the wingman (Kieran Hirst) scored to get his hat-trick.
“I couldn’t see the whole pitch because of that tree, but the good news is that it is coming down in the summer. It isn’t a bad view, I saw the majority of the game.
“I got a bit of stick for it because the wingman scored a hat-trick and I managed to grab the headlines for watching from my bedroom! But it was all in good jest.”
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