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BoroGuide FC 5-7 Barnet
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Date:
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Saturday 8th February 2004
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Competition:
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Friendly (6-a-side)
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Referee:
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Two Hats
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Written by: Ken Jude
"Fucking Bollocks! Crap! It DOES Matter!"
So said a disappointed Captain Lighthouse after his Boroguide FC team had been beaten by two goals in the battle against Barnet supporters on the all-weather surface at Shephalbury Park.
As seems to be traditional with new signings to Stevenage-based teams, Boroguide's new signing "Legs" Makin was unavailable for the first match since putting pen to paper, although rumours that he was injured as a result of a Westley-style training session are untrue. Also untrue are the scurrilous rumours that his absence arose from taking travel advice from Mickey Warner. He merely had a prior engagement.
In a bitterly cold wind the early minutes of the match saw little in the way of goal chances. Not that this was a result of outstanding defending, more a case of nobody finding any room to do anything with the ball. However, when players started tiring (Captain Lighthouse managed at least 10 minutes before starting to blow heavily) spaces appeared and we began to see a match.
The visitors opened the scoring when AndyC lost the ball in the middle of the park allowing a Barnet move that saw Peter Beadle finishing with a great strike to take first blood. Barnet thrice hit the metalwork and there was a controversial moment when it seemed another effort might have crossed the line before Boroguide started to get into the match.
First Lighthouse had a long-range effort tipped away, before MarkE struck an improbable equaliser from wide on the right. This came at the right time to calm Thora, who was letting his suspect temperament get the better of him after thinking his ankle had been stamped on and seemed in danger of boiling over in what was becoming an increasingly physical match.
Barnet went back ahead after a neat turn in front of goal left Keith Doe a simple task of poking the ball through Burgers' legs. Boroguide were quickly on terms though when MarkE, by now more pumped up then ever seen on the East Terrace, scored from the edge of the area. He celebrated his goal in some style a couple of minutes later, his 360 degree pirouette following the lightest tap on his ankle demonstrating that a fine alternative career as a ballerina awaits when he fails as a footballer.
With half time approaching to the relief of at least some of the participants, Boroguide took the lead for the first time when Ben latched onto Deano's precision pass before lobbing the Barnet keeper in style. Despite the Boroguide lead though, one sensed that the best player on the park was strawberry-blonde Tony Fenton for the visitors and that he would yet prove to have a significant impact on the match.
The second half kicked off with a comedy moment as MarkE thought it would be clever to hit the largest Barnet player head on. The distance he bounced back in the other direction might well have the physicists drooling over what seemed a perfectly elastic collision. The spectators merely laughed, but not for long as Fenton equalised for the visitors with a shot slotted wide of replacement keeper Matt Stanton, then gave his side the lead after being left clear in front of an open goal for the simplest of chances.
Ben equalised for Boroguide after ref Two Hats gave a penalty for encroachment. Barnet, though, were soon ahead again as that man Fenton made a strong run down the left and finished off in style for a deserved hattrick in a performance that had everything, including a bit of "hands on" healing for Two Hats as he attempted to show how he had been pushed. Ben was not to be outshone, though, as he too notched his hattrick with a strike into the top corner to once more level the scores at five apiece.
Beadle notched his second of the game, and also his second great finish, to leave Boroguide chasing the game with only minutes left of the clock. Jock might have snatched the equaliser but, after a great run, he couldn't find the finish. But hey, that can happen to great players of the calibre of Patrick Viera, Roy Keane and, err, (sorry, I can't quite bring myself to complete the trio of players that Westley compared in the press this week).
The game ended in disappointing style for Boroguide as, with MarkE complaining about some minor misdemeanour at one end, Darren Chillingworth scored at the other end to secure a 7-5 victory that on balance was a pretty fair reflection of the balance of the game.
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Burgers - 1.
Notnats - 1.
Bendinio - 15.
Jock - 15.
AndyC - 16.
Jasper - 17.
Thora - 17.
Deano - 18.
Lighthouse - 18.
Goalscorers:
Bendinio 3,
Jasper 2
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