1st October 2011
Netherton A 1 – 2 Baston
Baston continued their good start to the season with a hard worked 2-1 victory against Netherton A.
Baston started poorly, and yet again had goalkeeper Tom Bedford to thank for a couple of excellent saves. Neither side created any good football, with the ball regularly being lost, and bouncing loose. Netherton were getting the rub of the green, and would have taken the lead but for a shocking finish at the back post as their striker hammered over the bar.
Baston took an unlikely lead on 20 minutes as top scorer Craig Bullivant broke free down the middle on the pitch latching onto a through ball by Scott Waters and slotted expertly past the onrushing keeper, to keep up his tally of four goals in four games.
Netherton only took a few minutes to equalise with a scrappy goal, riddled with defensive errors. The Netherton winger was given time and space as he beat the offside trap and crossed the ball in low from the left, Bedford made a rare error and couldn’t hold onto the ball, Jacob Parkin could have cleared but dwelled on the ball at the back post, and was tackled by Netherton striker Craig Duguid and the ball flew into the net to level the score.
The rest of the half petered out, with Baston knowing that they would need to raise their performance in the second half.
Baston did just that, and dominated early in the second half, and found a few chances with Ben Hudson’s header turned around the post, and Simon Ward unlucky for his gamble not to pay off at the near post as the keeper fumbled O’Loughlin’s free-kick, but his reflexes couldn’t turn the ball into the net and it flew over.
Finally after 75 minutes, Baston took a deserved lead as sub Ryan Jones clipped a quality delivery into the path of Greg Rawlinson who beat his defender and his cross/shot was fumbled over the line by the keeper.
Baston ran out deserved winners, and had chances to put the game to bed late on, but Rawlinson was wasteful, spurning 2 excellent one-on-one chances.
Man of the Match – Simon Ward
Baston – Tom Bedford, Jon Howard (Ryan Jones), Matt Barnett, Liam Davies, Jacob Parkin, Scott Waters, Simon Ward (c), Ross O’Loughlin, Greg Rawlinson, Ben Hudson, Craig Bullivant.
