As the final game of the season for Barnstoneworth, there wasn’t a great deal of concern over this game, especially as Umina beat us 5-0 last time. For Umina though, the opposite was true, as Barnstoneworth’s 2-0 defeat of Avoca the week before had put Umina into the finals, meaning a victory today would make them minor premiers. Read more
A beautiful sunny day saw Barnstoneworth run out against East Gosford on a pitch that was hard, uneven and mostly dirt in front of the goals. With a strong breeze blowing against them and the sun in their eyes, Barnstoneworth had a storming first half, with the Lynch brothers and Pez getting ample opportunities to shoot for goal, to no effect. Read more
Fronting up with half your team missing is never a good place to start, but Brett Fenton had done a sterling job recruiting some players from D-Grade North for this catch-up game, so we ran on to Paddy Clifton Oval with eleven players, with one sub expected to turn up eventually. After a delay finding a match ball, the game started, with no less than two linesmen and an audience from passing trains. Read more
On a heavy Duffy’s pitch, Barnstoneworth came out hard against Kariong from the start, winning the ball in the middle and putting a lot of pressure on their defence. Upfront Tom and Brett had so many shots at goal we lost count, and eventually one of Tom’s made it through. Read more
Missing some key players and with few reserves, Barnstoneworth turned up to Oval 2 (or was it Oval 1?) at Umina with no great expectations. This turned out to be a prescient attitude as the afternoon wore on. Read more
It’s sometimes said that consistency is one of the hardest things to achieve. This certainly seemed to be the case with Barnstoneworth this week when we met for a re-match with a team we beat 7-1 earlier in the season. Missing some key players and having only one reserve didn’t help the situation, but let’s not make excuses, it was a pretty dismal performance. Read more
After the storm of scandal and fiasco generated by his last match report, your correspondent approached this one with considerable trepidation. Fortunately though, the match in question today was one fought between two equally-matched sides who both played with gusto, and it could have gone either way quite easily. Read more
** We have edited part of this report as it has caused offence for which we sincerely apologise **
This was a closely-fought game that started out as a walkover, and ended in farce, debacle and a seriously disabling injury for fullback Anthony Broadbere, cut down in the midst of the best attacking foray we’ve ever seen from him. Read more
This match was amply summarised by a player as we walked off at full-time: “Well that was F***ing Horrible.”
Enough said.
Final result: Barnstoneworth Utd D South 0 – 5 Umina.
It was a glorious day for a lunchtime match at Erina’s centre of academia versus the dreaded Avoca. They rocked up seemingly fitter and younger than last year, whilst we rocked up in Brown’s Cow’s fashion and with some trepidation as our talisman, big Dave, was out following an injury he received whilst playing for the Kings. Read more