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."