FC Baresi 1 Lymore Gardens 4

Essex Alliance League Senior Division, Monday August 23rd

I was over Barking's Mayesbrook Park on Monday evening to see a rare Essex Alliance contest under the lights for a Waltham Forest derby between FC Baresi & Lymore Gardens in the newly granted Step 7 division, the Senior Division, which got underway at the weekend.

This was both sides first game of the new season, and big season for all fourteen clubs in the division this season with the prospect of promotion to Senior Football for some at least a reality now, so it was likely to be a competitive season for sure, and if this game was anything to go by then we will be in for a lively one too.

There were only seven minutes on the clock when visitors Lymore Gardens grabbed the lead, and it was a special strike from George Dwobeng after he fired an unstoppable effort from range into the bottom corner of the net, and cued rather exuberant celebrations from him and his team mates, not surprising considering this was a derby and under lights in a stadium, so this was a big night for both sides.

Unfortunately the first half would be remembered for the wrong reasons, both sets of players were shall we say rather excitable and on the edge and flashpoints were evitable in my mind anyway, and the first flashpoint happened over on the far side from me in front of the visitors bench, not sure what happened to start it all off but it took a couple of minutes to calm everyone down.

No cards or punishment were handed out on this occasion, but a few minutes later it all kicked off again, this time over in the near side to me in front of the main stand, when FC Baresi's nine and Gardens five came together and resulted in an altercation between the two and another Gardens player, and then all hell broke loose as everyone, including the visitors boss who had charged across the field to get involved, or keep the peace, not sure which one, and it took several minutes for this to calm down and also for all three officials to deliberate over what had just happened (thought the officials handled it very well to be honest so fair play to them).

The result was a red card for the hosts nine and the visitors five, whilst the Gardens manager was also dismissed too for entering the field of play and getting involved in the way he did (to be fair to him he did come up to Rob Parker who is a committee member and the social media man for the league) during the second period to apologise to that was good to see, but the scenes, which threatened to carry on in the tunnel/dressing room area after the sent off men had walked off, were certainly overshadowing the contest, so half time was certainly the time to calm everyone down and actually play a game of football.

Thankfully the second half had no such incidents, but the beginning of the second period saw Bradley Donovan net a twelve minute hat-trick to all but end this contest, netting his first and doubling Gardens lead two minutes after the break when bringing the ball down and firing home superbly, and then three minutes later he had another as after the keeper has saved a shot from the left, he could only parry into the path of Donovan who converted from close range.

And it was 0-4 and a hat-trick for the striker when he took advantage of a stranded keeper after he had come out to try and win a challenge with another attacker, and the loose ball was hooked home from long range brilliantly by Donovan, and you felt the visitors may go on and win this quite comfortably.

Donovan went off just before the hour mark, his work was done, and it seemed that Gardens work was also done too, and maybe some of their players thought this as they took their foot off the gas so to speak as the hosts, who to be fair to them kept going, begin to dominate proceedings but they just did not have an end product and missed some really good opportunities to get back into the contest.

The only time they did finally breach the Gardens back line came eleven minutes from time when a cross from the right was put into his own net by a defender, and if FC Baresi had someone to put the ball in the net they may well have produced an unlikely comeback, but they didn't, so the visitors held on for a superb win in this derby game. That Donovan hat-trick and the hosts poor start to the second period ultimately cost them and won the game for the visitors in the end.  

Waltham Forest bragging rights to Lymore Gardens then, FC Baresi will no doubt want to even it up in the return game later on in the campaign...

Full Time FC Baresi 1 Lymore Gardens 4