We did two match reports by accident, so have a look if you want a second opinion on the game :)

Team sheet: Graham (G), Wrigley, Waite, McDonald, Taylor(Firth 45) Glover, Ledbury, Bentham, Harbush, Sigardsson, Francey. subs: Riley, Erikson

This was a must win game to keep up with the runaway leaders of the division. The dressing room had an air of expectancy about it as we were on an impressive run of 4 games unbeaten and starting to put some decent team performances together. We even had the luxury of 3 quality subs, which for this season’s standard was a miracle in itself. Saying this, New Inn were going to be the toughest challenge yet.

As the game started, everything was going well, except we were unable to touch the ball!! The sun, wind and Everberg bobble weren’t helping, but in reality we were extremely poor. Their skilful midfield trio were running us ragged, it wasn’t looking good and there wasn’t anything we could do about it!

We held them (with anything we could get our hands on) for 15 mins, and then the inevitable happened. The skilful No 8 took advantage of slack marking, dribbled round a couple and lobbed Jimmy Graham from 18 yds out, to score a fine solo effort.

Five minutes later more bad news, a speculative effort from their forward from fully 25 yds out with his back to goal looped over Graham and under the bar for a spectacular 2nd. Lucky b*****d I say!! Five minutes after that, another goal bound effort was excellently tipped around the post by Graham.

This seemed to raise a little hope for the lads and we finished the half with a couple of decent moves down the right by Bentham, which unfortunately came to nothing.

Half-Time 0 –2

We were outclassed, and we knew it, a rousing team talk from Captain Harbusch was our last chance. The normally unflappable German was flapping and gave everyone a deserved kick up the arse. However the advice given from our player/coach Johan Erikson made all the difference when he piped up with “the next goal is really important lads!!”

So with this in mind we started much sharper, Paul Firth came on, on the left and immediately made an impact trying to arrange a scrap for later, they were getting riled. Our back 3 looked very comfortable, the midfield started to win every ball and roadrunner Bentham was causing them problems down the right.

The ball over the top and down the flanks seemed to be bringing some joy and after 15 minutes of the 2nd half, the mercurial Francey shook off their centre half and fired home for his zillionth goal for the club. The boost to the team was evident.

For the final ¼ of the game New Inn hardly touched the ball and with 5 mins to go, Harbusch picked the ball up from midfield and laid on an exquisite ball over to Bentham to run onto into the box. When Bentham opens his legs and shows his class like this there will only be one winner! He took his chance superbly slotting the ball past their stranded keeper.

3 mins later the final whistle blew.

Final Score 2 –2

The team felt this was a point gained rather than a point lost especially how poorly we started the match. It keeps our unbeaten run intact and gives us confidence we can compete with the better teams in the league.

Ledbury won MOM, closely followed by our Player/Coach Erikson for his inspirational team talk at half-time. Move over Sven Goran!!