Essex Olympian League Premier Division, Saturday March 14th
Mid March and a pleasant sunny day (mostly) saw me head into the beautiful Essex countryside and Barnston for an EOFL Premier Division contest between Barnston AFC & league leaders Catholic United at the excellent facility that is High Easter Road.
The hosts were embarking on their first ever season in the EOFL after their switch over from the Essex & Suffolk Border League Premier Division and after finding the change of divisions a tad tough earlier in their campaign, they were now finding their feet and had been in decent form since the turn of the year, in the four games they had managed to play three wins had come from them, including back to back in the league.
That good run of form would be put to the test against a Catholic side who had pretty much lead the standing all season, however, the visitors had stumbled recently after a pretty much perfect season up till recently, after five straight wins going either side of new year, the next five in all competitions saw them win only once, and last weekend they suffered a very disappointing 5-2 defeat in the Essex Premier Cup semi final, so this was certainly not an easy game to forecast the outcome.
This was despite the gap between the two in the division, Barnston down in 10th spot and thirty four points behind the leaders, but with both sides going through differing fortunes lately it certainly meant a tough competitive contest was on the cards, Barnston knew if they could win they could climb into the top half of the league and into eighth spot, there highest position for some time and probably all season.
For Catholic they came into this one with seven point cushion to their nearest and probably only challengers for the title in Shenfield AFC, a win and a slip up from the second placed side could see that gap open further, but any slip up from the leaders and that gap could be down to just four points, so two very different outcomes were possible, what were we going to get?
The visitors certainly were the ones on the front foot in the opening few minutes but it was the hosts who were to grab the lead after nine minutes as after an initial effort had been blocked, Ryan Gilbert was on hand to ram the ball into the roof of the net from close range and hand Barnston an early advantage, an advantage they doubled midway through the first period, David Limber forcing a save from visiting keeper Owen Wells but he could only parry across goal into the path of Fred Dewar who made no mistake by collecting the ball and firing home.
How would Catholic respond, they had plenty of attacking flair but thus far had been unable to find a way through, they almost did when Mike Clark got a sight of goal but when it looked for all money it would be 2-1, his effort was superbly saved by home keeper Harrison Mott, and the hosts could enjoy a two goal cushion at half time, and the league leaders were in danger of slipping up again and seeing that lead cut even further at the top.
The visitors knew they needed the next goal and needed it promptly after half time, and they did just that two minutes after the restart when Clark allowed the ball to go across himself before he turned and smashed a left footed effort beyond keeper Mott and momentum looked to be well and truly with the visitors and I felt it was only a matter of time before they got back on level terms.
Fin Woods, who has been having a decent game down the left hand side, then sent in a lovely cross to substitute, sixteen year old Archie Armstrong, and his lofted header almost found the net as the hosts really had to dig in and prevent Catholic from getting back on level terms, but once they had got through this tough period, they begin to threaten themselves once again, and had two golden chances to restore their two goal cushion.
Substitute George Myers found himself in on goal but his shot across goal was brilliantly tipped just wide of the far post by Wells although the referee gave a goal kick, and then Lewis Sonnex lofted a effort just off target when it looked nailed on he would find the net, but with just under fifteen minutes remaining Myers would find the net and the hosts would have a third as Sonnex did well down the left before his ball into the six yard box was touched on by Limber and onto Myers before the ball ended up in the net, and the hosts now had some breathing space.
Could Catholic quickly find a second goal to reduce the arrears and make the final part of the game tense for the hosts, well no they couldn't and in fact it was Barnston who would add another before the game was done, Sonnex pinching the ball off a defender before striding into the box and firing home with three minutes of the ninety to go, game set and match you could say, and the hosts and netted a fine win over the faltering league leaders.
Full time Barnston AFC 4 Catholic United 1
Let's now see how this result and others results today affect the table, firstly here are the other scores on the doors from the EOFL Premier today followed by the up to date table:-
ACD United 2-1 Herongate Athletic
Corinthians 1-4 Leigh Ramblers
Hashtag United Reserves 2-5 Harold Hill
Runwell Sports 0-5 Old Chelmsfordians
Shenfield AFC 5-3 Old Southendian
Sungate 1-4 Bishop's Stortford Swifts
Wakering Sports 0-0 Harold Wood Athletic
Barnston's win takes them up to eighth spot and the top half of the division, defeat for Catholic, only their third of the season in the division, sees their lead cut to four points after Shenfield AFC netted five at home in an entertaining match against Old Southendian, third placed Old Chelmsfordians netted five at Runwell Sports but realistically their title defence is probably to far out of their reach now unless the top two drop more points.
It's getting tight down at the bottom, Runwell are right in a relegation dogfight after today's thumping loss, they are only three points above the bottom two, ACD netting a huge win against third bottom Herongate today to close the gap to just two points from safety now, and bottom side Harold Hill smashed five past Hashtag United as both sides in the relegation places gave themselves more hope they could get out of it.
The bottom six are only separated by seven points, and with the bottom two both winning and the sides just above the drop zone all losing, it's certainly made that battle very interesting indeed. It appears with the season coming to it's latter stages now, we could have a title showdown and also a relegation battle between several teams, so it sure looks like it will be a very exciting end to this campaign!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment