Berkeley Vale vs BUFC B North Match Report

Round 2 saw Barnstoneworth 35BN’s away to Berkley Vale at Chittaway Oval, which meant both our opponent and the venue were unknowns. A 1.30PM kick off saw temperatures still in the high 20’s, so rotations in the midfield would again be likely to be a key factor.

After a slightly slower than expected start we managed to largely take control of the game and it was therefore just reward when Frank headed in the opener on 20 minutes to put us in front.

Unfortunately, we were unable to capitalise further on our dominance and went into the break leading by the single goal.

The second half saw Berkeley Vale become more competitive and despite a couple of decent opportunities on the counter – one of which that was rubbed out for a very dubious offside call against Chippa who started his run in our half of the pitch – we found ourselves being pushed deeper and deeper into our own half, probably due in part to our tiring in the heat with only two subs.

Despite this, our opponents weren’t exactly peppering our goal, so it looked like we might be able to
grind out an ugly 1-0 win before some slack marking from a corner unfortunately allowed Berkeley Vale to equalise. Given our second half fade, we would have settled for the draw in truth but with a few minutes remaining, Berkeley Vale were awarded a soft free kick 20 metres out, which was subsequently smashed in on off the underside of the crossbar.

Despite going to three up front, we simply couldn’t get ourselves back on terms before the whistle, going down 2-1. As disappointing as the result was from the perspective of our own shortcomings, hats off to Berkeley Vale for taking the game to us in the second half, which is something we will hopefully learn some valuable lessons from.

The man of the match award was again shared this time round, with the recipients being Chippa and Shane. We have also decided to reintroduce the always popular Screwup of the Match medal (affectionately known as the Scrotum medal) for the most spectacular fail of the game, with this week’s ‘happy’ recipient being Jason “I never touched him ref’ Doughan.

Final Score: Berkeley Vale 2 – 1 Barnstoneworth BN