Another Nail in my Heart

Barely Athletic 0-3 Nailsea Old Boys

Allan

Mike         Batts        Colin

Sam            Scott           Chris        Adam

Richie

Laurie            Gareth

Subs from

Jim B

Paul L

Paul T

Rob

Al

Kevin

Darren

It was fun while it lasted, and we'll always have that picture of the cup sat on the cistern of Batt's toilet. But yesterday Nailsea - who Barely saw off via the penalty spot in last season's epic final - ousted Barely from the competition at the semi-final stage. 

What a battle royale it was too, with at least half of the Nailsea team spending most of the the time gliding through the turf and into the ball/shins/ankles of the Barely team. Scott and Paul Loftus decided to do likewise, and Batts is always up for a bit of horizontal action, but the team as a whole were out-rugg-ed like a B+Q doormat next to a tiger skin. Instead the boys in orange and black attempted to football their way through the tie, but were collectively having a bit of an off day, with passes going hither and thither under the constant pressure of the Nobs team.

To be fair, although they played with a robustness that occasionally strayed into a grey area, Nobs also played the best football when in possession and deserved the win. From a Barely point of view the two easily-headed finishes of the first half smarted as much as Allan's error for the third, when the ball ricocheted off his gloves and into the net. But they'll be smarting much worse from their inability to stitch anything more than the odd few passes together. 

Perhaps seven substitutes meant the ringing of changes unsettled the team. Perhaps the skiddy surface and sliding tackles - at one point it was getting silly - did the job. Whatever it was, the real Barely only came to the surface in fits and starts - most often through the reliable figure of Richie, who picked up his habitual Man of the Match award. Other notable performers were the never-knowingly-undersold Scott, the blur of activity that is Adam and decent back-line efforts of Batts and the returning Jim Banton. Paul T and Rob also came on to show some good touches, as Barely made efforts in the second half to get back in the game. The closest they came was Scott's cross met by a flying Kevin, but sadly just the wrong side of the post to register the much needed goal.

Nobody had a bad game. But overall Barely couldn't find the composure to match their effort, and bow out of the competition nursing a few bruises to bodies and pride. After the miraculous 2017, 2018 has begun like what this man below thought would be a satisfying fart, but turned out to be something else.