Thurlow Nunn First Division South, Friday 23rd January
I fancied a Friday night outing and luckily for me their was a pretty damn good matchup happening at Oakside where Lymore Gardens & Newbury Forest, who both call this ground home this season, were taking on each other in what was an important game in the top five of the division.
Lymore continue to have a great first season in senior football, and after reaching the Last 16 of the FA Vase at the weekend in their first ever attempt, they now turned their attentions to working out how to get past a Newbury Forest side who sat two places above them in the table in second spot and six points ahead of them.
Forest themselves were trying to close the gap to leaders Hutton, which was seven points at kick off, Lymore knew a win for them would take them above third placed Stansted in the table and closer to that second place spot, and with a pack of sides not far behind them too, points for either side were certainly important and helpful, as they always are of course.
Both these sides like to play decent football, and they love to attack as well, Lymore were averaging 2.25 goals a game whereas Newbury Forest were the leagues top scorers with 76 goals, an average of 2.8 a game, so I boldly predicted a very entertaining high scoring encounter, obviously.
Well, after the opening forty five minutes I wished I had kept my mouth shut, yes their was a very decent tempo to the game, and their were plenty of efforts on goal, however not many of these were on target, and when Lymore won a penalty late on in the first half and saw the keeper save it, I thought to myself as the teams went off with the scoreline at 0-0, have I jinxed this somewhat!!!
I needn't worry though as the second half was a breathless affair and more in line with what I had anticipated this encounter could well be like, Lymore went close again early in the second half when they struck the bar, and they were certainly the side in the ascendency, but, eight minutes into the second period came the breakthrough, and relief from me that it wouldn't finish 0-0, as Forest got in down the left before squaring across goal for a tap in.
That lead didn't last long though as Lymore responded in the best possible way, levelling two minutes later when Wisley Baltazar looped a finish into the far corner, and then just past the hour mark they led thanks to a wonderful curling effort from Zidane Bolessa which went across goal and in off the far post, and at this stage it looked as if Lymore could go on and add a few more goals.
That didn't happen though and they allowed the visitors back into the contest, and with just over fifteen of the ninety remaining, found a leveller, Lymore claimed their was a foul, but the referee played on (it didn't look like a foul to me) and as the hosts stopped Forest got themselves in down the left again, and a ball across goal was tapped home from close range, and this game headed into it's final moments all square.
Now it was Forest who looked the likelier to find a winner if their was one to come, but Lymore regrouped and then became the side who pressed for the winner, and deep deep into added on time they so nearly found the winner as a corner kick swung into came back off the post and then hit an attacker and went wide of the goal, and Forest could breathe a big sigh of relief.
A brilliant second half then after a goalless opening forty five minutes which wasn't at all dull either, but it would end all square and see both sides pick up a well earned point.
Full time Lymore Gardens 2 Newbury Forest 2
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