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.