Nearly Sublime

St Brendans 3 - 2 Barely Athletic

Gareth

Adam        Batts       Mike      Laurie

Sam    Andy L    Paul T     Darren     Chris

John T

Subs: John R, Nick

With combative encounters against St Brendans fresh - or reasonably fresh - in the mind, Batts decided to pack the centre of midfield, aligning the quick feet of Paul Tovey with the mobile and combative Andy and Darren. And it just might have worked, if it hadn't been for those pesky middle-aged men...

Barely broke with tradition and began the game in an alert state. St Brendans were providing a lot of pressure, of course, but the defence held strong. Adam in particular had to be on his toes against St Brendan's big left-winger, who had a fair turn of pace. And Gareth had no cause to be bored as he was called upon to smother the odd ball.

At the other end Chris - taking a turn on the wing - almost opened proceedings with a slaloming run infield, only to see his cheeky chip sail fractionally over the crossbar. Andy was foiled by the keeper as well before Chris's second chance came - breaking through after a long-range one-two with Sam, his finish lacked a bit of composure and trundled into the keeper's arms.

St Brendans do not suffer from stage-fright, however, and when that pesky left-winger finally broke the shackles Adam had him in, he managed to shake off two further challenges before rifling in from a narrow angle to put the away team 1-0 up at the break.

Batts kept with the formation and rolling subs but pushed Darren up into attack, giving John a breather. Everyone felt Barely were at the races, now they just had to prove it. And prove it they did, when they surged back from a position of looming defeat to one of victory. First Darren put Barely in front after negotiating what seemed like seven or eight attempts to tackle him by the same player. They kicked the ball into each others' shins for a while before the Barely man turned and finished inside the far post. Then Andy put Barely ahead with a deflected shot that left the keeper stranded.

Barely could have been even better placed, but having beaten the St Brendan's offside trap Sam fluffed his lines with the keeper at his mercy, wafting the ball into his body. Then the ref waved away appeals at the edge of the box when the diminutive firebrand/moaner was barged over from behind. John Trimble looked like he'd won a penalty when having rounded the goalie, he was barged to the ground. The ref sympathetically took the defender's view.

The sense of missed opportunity loomed large when St Brendans equalised as the Barely lines, as is their wont, began to creak in the last third of the game. The equaliser was as inevitable as the answer to that Edward Woodward joke. And then, woe of woes, a dribble across the penalty box ended with an agonisingly close-to-Gareth's-hand slide rule finish to put St Brendan's back in front.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man, and here cometh Gareth out onto the pitch as Mike took the goalkeeper's gloves. And he so nearly scoreth the goal only for the Barely through-ball to run just out of his reach and into the grateful hands of the 'keeper. There was just time for Sam to scream at the lack of attackers before crossing the ball into the keeper's arms and Chris to chop down that pesky left-winger, before the game closed out, and a sterling performance from every individual couldn't quite manifest itself into what in your correspondent's eyes would have been a deserved point.

"I don't use the word sublime often... and I'm not going to today" Batts said. But he was nonetheless proud of a considerable collective effort. The busy Adam deservedly took man of the match vote as Barely reflected on a job well-performed - if not well done.

Nails ease their way to Victory

Barely Athletic 1 Nailsea Old Boys 4

Gareth

Colin           Danny            Batts          Laurie

Sam            Mike             Chris           John R

Paul Tovey

Nick

Sub: John T

The sun shone blisteringly down on an unseasonably warm September Day as Barely kicked off the new season in style - Barely style, that is: with just the one sub and the patented lethargic start, as they pretty much gifted Nailsea a two goal lead inside the first ten minutes.

With that out of the way, Barely began to smell the coffee and remember that they can, when they put their minds to it, play a bit of football. Batts went for a fairly compact midfield, with Mike patrolling in front of the back line, Paul Tovey holding up the ball behind Nick, and Chris doing a fair amount of work in-between them. Sam and John Rossetti looked to find space down the wing, but mainly found themselves out of breath.

Nonetheless Barely did put one or two moves together, and managed to keep Nailsea at bay until half-time. John Trimble, who had gamely refereed the first half, gave the whistle to Nick and took his place up front. Barely began the second half with a much more robust display; snapping into tackles and moving the ball forward a lot quicker. John Rossetti had already pulled a save out of the goalkeeper when John T was sent through on goal - with a composed finish he got Barely right back in the game at 2-1, with the majority of the half still to play.

However, that was as good as it got for the home team ultimately, as despite the odd flurry - one lovely five-pass move bamboozled the Old Boys entirely before petering sadly out - they concentrated solely on staying upright, as tired lungs and even tireder legs protested against the ongoing punishment. Even the exhortations of Gareth in the Barely goal couldn't quite raise the tempo - what Barely really needed, of course, was three or four subs to keep things ticking over. Without them it was always going to be a struggle - and as the half wore on, Nailsea capitalized on increasingly desperate defending with two more goals to seal the points.

A disappointing start to the season, then, but there were some morsels of promise here if only Barely can get the numbers out to sustain themselves over 90 minutes. Man of the Match saw a smattering of nominees but with Batts and John T tied on three votes each, the gaffer took the executive decision of handing the gong (a metaphorical gong, but a gong nonetheless) to John for not only his goal and pester value up front, but volunteering to ref. Good work!

Next up: St Brendans, on the 25th.