The twice cancelled and rearranged long awaited fixture had arrived. A chance for us to pit ourselves against the top side, Southborough. They came in to this game undefeated and free scoring. And in true B&A style whenever we have a big game our lads chose that as the weekend to be shopping with the Missus, get drunk and not turn up or most shocking of all, go to Bolton away! Still, with some last minute additions to the side we kicked off with a full strength squad. Thom Thumb made his return to the B&A fold with a place on the bench, a last minute call up after Gandhi's Ghost got stuck 'On the other side!!' Will he ever recover and come back to life?? No one knows. And Sam Reid made his B&A debut filling in at the back for the absent Hamish Macbeth who was away on a shopping weekend in London, GAY!
We started the game a little unsure of ourselves, just prodding slightly and almost waiting for the physical abuse to start. In most areas of the park we matched them, there was certainly still evidence of the normal passing football that can be seen on the allotments pitch regularly on a Saturday afternoon but at the back we struggled. There was some bad decision making and some hesitant moments that led to Southborough having the lion’s share of the chances. Their best chance early on came from cross to the far stick and just as Southborough thought they'd gone ahead, Fuzzy Bear, Knightrider, Abbo Harrison came flying through the air like a humming bird and clawed it away to safety. Possibly the best save ever seen at Goldsmiths. And there was more to come from the young Stopper. Eventually the pressure paid off and after another defensive mix up Southborough went ahead. It was 2-0 before the break, again a fairly soft goal. At half time heads didn’t drop and the B&A boys knew they were still in this game. The message was to cut out the silly mistakes and have some more confidence, come to the ball. When the ball was on the deck Zac Effron was running at people and turning them inside out, we just needed to get the ball down and play. Thom Thumb replaced Gandhi at half time to add some composure in the middle. It paid off early in the 2nd half. Spudulike's pass set Bertski free down the right, his pinpoint cross found ZacAttack at the far stick who prodded home at the second time of asking. 2-1. We battled hard to get back in to the game but were also reliant on Dazza at the back, he pulled off a number of impressive saves to keep B&A in the game. Then came the sucker punch. Junior had won the ball deep in his own half and facing his own goal played an ill-fated back pass to Dan, not noticing the Southborough number 10 lurking in the back ground. He latched on to the ball and poked it home to restore the two goal cushion. Blackham battled hard to get back in to the game, Hobbit came on and went up top to help Latts break them down but they defended well and we couldn't find a way through. We certainly didn't disgrace ourselves against a good, well organised side and we know on our day we can beat them. And we'll get another chance this week as we've got them again on Saturday
