Barely Undo Swift on Gullible Travels

Barely Athletic 3 Swift 2

Goal: Steve

Defence: Nick, Tom, Danny, Andy

Midfield: Richie, Jacko, Jim, Sam

Attack: Lefils, Mani

Sub: Phil

Barely maintained their league momentum yesterday with an inspired second half after a first period that was fairly risible by recent standards. With Swift apparently struggling in the league Barely were favourites before the off, but for the first 45 minutes they were outplayed and outfought by a Swift team hell-bent on gaining three points. Barely began gingerly when a rare mistake by Tom let in an attacker on goal, and Steve had to get down quickly to push the ball away. That danger over, another one presented itself when Swift established themselves as serial winners of headers, particularly their big number nine. It was predominantly pressure from the home team and therefore a surprise when Barely opened the scoring.

Our heroes won a corner with a bit of pressure, and the ball was cleared as far as Jim. A quick interchange with Sam and Mani later, Jim fired the ball into the six-yard box where Lefils just did enough to see the ball bobble in off the post.

Swift obviously felt this was a little unfair, and came looking for justice. They found it when a deft chip beat Steve all ends up, and shortly afterwards went ahead after Barely failed to clear a free-kick and the ball was stabbed in from close-range.

Barely came off at the break looking sheepish to say the least - Lefils was enraged enough to kick a passing steward, had there been one present. Richie squinted his brow thoughtfully and made changes. As is traditional, Nick went in goal for Steve and the first-half stopper went to the right wing. Phil came on at right-back for Nick and Sam went up front with Mani. The general consensus was that Barely should quit hitting the ball long and play their simple passing game that serves them so well in training, and they took to the pitch determind to make amends.

And from the off Barely looked a different team. Long balls were reduced to a minimum and the midfield began to work like a well-oiled machine - the footballing midfield machine, in fact, that Brunel was working on close to his death. Not ten minutes had passed when Richie worked his way banana-like to the left touchline, and skewed the ball back for his co-conspirator Jim to squeeze the ball under the keeper at the near post. Two-two.

Then, from a corner, Jacko exchanged passes with Danny and flighted a ball into the box, where Andy lamped the ball into the roof of the net. Barely were all over the game like a cheap suit. In fact the only real pressure they suffered at the hands of Swift were a couple of corners and some adventurous goalkeeping by Nick, who likes to keep his defence on their toes.

But the more likely scorers were Barely. Lefils returned to the fray and began opening up chances for his team-mates that Swift, never giving up, managed to block and clear. Andy fired narrowly wide. And Tom managed to partly concuss himself with a headed clearance that saw Barely's number one son reeling around like a sailor let loose on the grog.

But thankfully the feeling passed and Tom saw out the game, which ended 3-2 in Barely's favour. A good result, considering they pretty much achieved it in one half, Lefils' goal not withstanding. Man of the Match by a landslide was Jim, who covered every blade of grass, set up one goal and scored another. Danny and Phil were the only other players to feature in the vote, although the Barely Reporter would like to tip its hat to the whole midfield in the second half. Barely now have a succession of Wednesday night games with which to finish the season, and there is talk of Quentin, Dave Williams and Jerry all returning to the fold. A vintage line-up for a vintage season? We'll see.

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In other news, Barely manager Richie has put it to the Barely Reporter that he would welcome some kind of Opta stats to measure the effectiveness of his team. At time of writing, we only have one forgetful reporter and no technology to speak of, however if all Barely players would like to add (in comments section below, settings have been changed to allow anyone to comment) their estimated pass success rate we can at least have a good laugh.

Finally Sam is making a swift (no pun intended) recovery after running so hard he threw up all afternoon, and has warned he expects the same commitment from the whole team on Wednesday. "There's not enough gut-busting in this team" the fiery utility player tub-thumped. "I expect at least one cardiac episode this week, or I'll be disappointed."

Hill Farm reap a point

Barely Athletic 0 Hill Farm 0

Goal: Steve

Defence: Nick, Tom, Rich B, Chris

Midfield: Mike, Jim, Rich J, Richie

Attack: Mani, Sam

Subs: Gareth, Lee

Babysitting: Billy.

It does no disservice to Hill Farm to say their goalkeeper was the reason they came away with the point. Barely bossed the game for long periods but simply couldn't find a way past the acrobatic man between the sticks, who served notice of his ability when he got down low to Sam's header, after Mike had charged into the box early doors and got the ball onto the forehead of Lefils' understudy. The ball stuck to the goalie like an unwanted bogey sticks to a reluctant finger, and that, uh, finger, to force the metaphor, haunted Barely throughout the next 90 minutes.

Without key players like the aforementioned Lefils, Danny, Andy, and Phil, Barely put in a good performance overall, as they edged things in terms of possession and looked unflustered at the back despite a patched-up defence. However with the fledgling partnership of Mani and Sam upfront, they couldn't quite find a way through to give them the goal their play arguably deserved. Twenty minutes in Lee came on for Nick as a precautionary measure and added his voluble presence in terms of organisation, as well as a comfortable stint at left-back. Barely pushed on, but in a first half largely notable for the absence of goalmouth action, Steve was not called on to make a single save and his opposite number, whilst busy, looked at ease with what the home team had to offer.

Richie made just one change at the break, with Nick going in goal for Steve. The second half was a more open affair, especially late on as Barely legs tired and to be fair at this point the energetic Hill Farm mounted a sustained period of pressure. But previous to this it was all Barely, as Jim (the ticking midfield time-bomb abetting Jacko's pinpoint-pendulum), Mani, and Richie all saw shots gobbled up by the Hill Farm custodian. Sam, found by the impressively busy Richie in the box, had a shot tipped over the crossbar, but should have done better from another chance when he scuffed the ball low into the keeper's arms. Jacko, despite a fine display at midfield, left his shooting boots at home and managed to gouge a trough out of the turf in his enthusiasm for a goal. Even Tom managed to get forward, but a long distant effort went wide.

If this match report seems to resemble a list of near-misses, that's because at times that's what it was. To give Hill Farm their due however, they managed to eke out some chances of their own as the half wore on but by and large Nick was well-positioned for simple catches. Gareth came on at right-midfield and made one swashbuckling dash down the wing only to have his cross swallowed up by a box lacking in attackers.

When the last ten minutes arrived Barely were spent, and at one stage it looked like Hill Farm would nick a winner - and they might have done but for goal-line clearances by Tom and Chris. Barely were still trying to knock the ball around but Hill Farm were looking stronger, and must have been thinking they had ridden out the storm and had the momentum to take the points.

But Barely are made of stronger stuff than that, and a universally satisfying team performance ended with the game goalless when Bob blew the final whistle. The Barely Reporter gives every player at least 8 out of ten, but the player vote was a three-way tie between Tom, Rich B and tackling-maestro Chris, who was given the award in recognition of the fact that Tom and Rich had had it already and the team wanted them to keep a bit of humility, so previous holder Tom may have to take it out of the frame above his bedroom mirror again.

A tough and congested run-in sees Barely take to the field against Swift next Sunday. If they can add a bit of steel to their attack and continue to defend like this, anything is possible. Especially if the Swift keeper doesn't prove to be another bogeyman.

Barely leave Westbury wondering

Westbury Wanderers 1 Barely Athletic 2

Goal: Steve

Defence: Rich B, Danny, Tom, Sam

Midfield: Mike, Richie, Jim, Nick

Attack: Mani, Lefils

Subs: Andy, Rich J

Barely extended their unbeaten run in the league to five games at the weekend with a narrow victory over Westbury Wanderers. Both teams had their moments, but both also had times when it looked as though the pitch - an undulating bobbly-jumper of a surface - was doing them no favours. Asking Barely to produce their slick pass and move game in such an environment was equivalent to asking Ronnie O'Sullivan to produce a 147 break whilst playing snooker on a shaggy rug. He'd give it a go because he's that sort of man, but then he'd probably get cheesed off and storm out of the Crucible, lamping an official en route.

Thankfully, there were no such histrionics from the Barely players. If there were one might wonder what they were doing in the Crucible in the first place, as there was a match to be won in Eastville. And win it they did, though the aforementioned pitch didn't lend proceedings any real sense of spectacle. Instead it was a hard-working game by both sides, played in commendably fine spirit. Indeed, your correspondent feels that this match would be a great example of the Casual League's ethos as, despite no lack of competitive edge, frustrations were kept to a minimum and the Westbury players were noble in defeat, not to stray into the Stuart Hall territory of overexuberance and verbosity.

So: the game. Unusally for Barely, they moved up through the gears quickly from the off and avoided the usual early game lethargy. Nonetheless, they did have some pressure to soak up and the Barely defence, particularly the centre-back pairing of Tom and Danny, were imperious. At the other end, like Westbury, Barely were struggling in a similar vein to test the keeper, though they did force a few corners. It was from one of these that the deadlock was broken, after Barely had seen a shot pushed wide from the keeper. The resultant corner was cleared by the Westbury defence, but only as far as Sam, who touched the ball wide right to Mike. Mike's cross sailed over the crowd in the box to the far post, where Mani headed gratefully in for his second goal of the season.

At this point Barely were edging proceedings and probably deserved their lead as they came off at half time. Danny took the ref's whistle for the second half and Rich Batten moved from left to centre-back. Andy Lillford made his long awaited return from a broken leg to slot in a left-back. Richie took himself off for Rich Jackson, and Steve and Nick swapped places between left wing and goalkeeper.

But the start of the second half was mostly Westbury Wanderers, who were obviously stung by their team talk at the break. But again, Nick was rarely tested as Tom and Rich B marshalled the defence with aplomb. When Wanderers did look likely to score there were goal-line clearances from Sam and Tom to bail them out. And as the half wore on, Barely came back into the game. Rich J began to exert his customary poise and Mani and Lefils started to link with the midfield. They began to mount a series of attacks - that Westbury in turn looked to counter-attack from. But with legs tiring, the long-distance engines of Pinnell and Batten looked comfortable dealing with that threat.

Defences being dominant, it looked to be heading for a 1-0 win for Barely when a couple of late goals enlivened the endgame. First blood went to Barely when the tireless Mani put in Lefils for a simple tap-in. Then, with seconds remaining, Westbury got a consolation when an attacker nodded in from a corner. But it was too late to save them, and Barely go into next week's game in solid form.

Man of the match was Tom Pinnell, though the Barely reporter would also put in honourable mentions for Rich B, Mani, and Danny's first half (and willingness to ref the second). With Lillford's return to the fold and Batten's apparent comfort in the middle, Barely now have several options in defence for managers Jim and Richie to ponder. Next week: (if it doesn't rain) Hill Farm Casuals.