Reunion 9 (Nine) Barely Athletic 1

Goal: Steve

Defence: Chris, Andy, Danny, Rich B

Midfield: Mike, Ian, Jacko, Mani

Attack: Sam, Nick

Subs: Jim, Richie, Ioan, Eustace


It took so long to begin this report it almost feels like an obituary. Like a theatre critic going proudly, hopefully, to see his son play Vladimir in Waiting For Godot only to forget all his lines and keep bumping into Estragon. How to write up such humourless corpsing? Performance-wise, Barely Athletic did not die yesterday afternoon, but they spent a good bit of time on the gurney looking dazed. What's your name? How many fingers?

In fact basic math is not the only thing Barely are struggling with. If their traditional slow start now applies season-wide then some remedial classes might be in order. For this is relegation form and Barely's long stay in the top tier will be in serious jeopardy if they cannot pull something out of the fire, to mix a couple of metaphors.

On a brighter note, though it seems perverse to say so this was in some ways an improvement on the opening day defeat to AXA - the ludicrous soundbites from the Barely dressing room afterwards ("We played some good stuff") did have a germ of truth in them, desperately straw-clutching though they were. Though defensively little needs to be noted other than a glance at the scoreline, Barely had their moments going forward, especially after Richie and Jim joined the fray in the second half. By this time Barely were 5-1 down though (the goal coming courtesy of Mani coolly slotting home Mike's deep cross) and Reunion had been pretty much granted freedom of Bristol such was the space they were afforded. Barely's second half showing was an improvement, with Richie reshuffling the team to a large extent (and making an impact himself), but Reunion were still the better team, and punished Barely mercilessly with a late salvo of goals as Barely faltered in the heat and the midfield found it exponentially harder to chase back after any attacks broke down. It might have been much worse too but for several interventions by Nick, playing the game of his life in goal, and some last-ditch blocks from Danny and Rich Batten in particular.

At the other end Jim and Richie both shot narrowly wide and the former so nearly got on the end of a Richie cross as Barely did their best to penetrate a well organised, but not hugely mobile, defence. Sam forced a stretching save from the keeper with an improvised chip after nicking the ball from the centre-back, and the Reunion sticksman also denied Richie again with two saves pushing the ball out for corners as he and Andy combined to good effect on the left. Steve, having a spell up front, managed a couple of neat turns but couldn't free himself enough for a finish. At the other end, however, the home team were proving clinical with a series of precision finishes.

Richie (who shared man-of-the-match with Andy) and Jim have some job on their hands building morale, not to mention ekeing out a result - even a draw - after this. The Barely Reporter will hazard a guess and say the work starts at the back, though as Nick pointed out, starting the game against last year's champions with their two best players on the bench might have been misplaced loyalty (or worse, faith) on Jim's part. But that's part of Barely's creed after all, and the day the managers approach the game from a purely mercenary perspective, then a little something will have died after all.

And on that slightly pompous note, your correspondant signs off, looking for a very stiff cup of coffee.