Barnstoneworth B North vs Wyong Report

Round 15 saw our home game disappointingly moved to Baker Park, as Duffy’s Oval was once again closed for the weekend, meaning we travelled to the scene of the crime where Jorge had been so badly injured by a crude challenge in Round 8.

Arriving at the ground, it would not be an overstatement to say that we were almost blown off our feet by the wind roaring across the ground, which was likely to make playing attractive football somewhat difficult. With Jorge still amongst the five players unavailable this week, we were fortunate to be able to get Phil Lisle and Paul Nesbit to back up for us from the 45A’s.

Having beaten Wyong 3-0 in the first meeting and with them being bottom of the league, we were hoping for a much needed win this time around but it was our opponents who seemed to deal with the difficult conditions better and so we found ourselves somewhat on the back foot for the opening 20 minutes or so. After weathering the storm (pun intended), we began to take control of the game and managed to create some good opportunities without being able to convert any of them, so it remained all square at half time.

With shades of the past couple of weeks haunting the half time talk, we started the second half much better and whilst we were awarded what in truth was a soft penalty 10 minutes after the restart, which Tom duly converted, we certainly did deserve to take the lead. With us now able to exercise increasing control of the game, we never looked like surrendering our advantage and it was no real surprise when Frank finally managed to take one of several chances that fell to him to provide us the buffer of a second goal to give us a much needed 2-0 win at the final whistle.
The sense of relief across the team was obvious, as this was a game we simply could not afford to lose and whilst the win wasn’t the prettiest, it was hopefully a confidence booster going into the next round, with an 8 point lead at the top of the table.

The man of the match award went jointly to Geoff for another solid performance between the sticks and Thang for his lively performance in the midfield, whilst the Scrotum medal went to Mark (dolly drop) Leadbeatter, for his three foul throws in the first half of the game!

Final Score: Barnstoneworth 2 – 0 Wyong