BA Sunday arrived at the Concorde Centre on a wet Sunday morning wondering whether the game against Premier Sports would fall victim to the inclement weather yet again.
Fortunately the groundsman had done a great job of moping up the water and the pitch was in great condition despite 2 days of near incessant rain.
The management team elected to go with the same starting eleven that would have started the previous week's game had it not been frozen off. That left Bish, Deano and Paul on a very strong bench.
The last time these two teams met the score finished a ridiculous 10-1 to Premier Sports. Every one of the BA players involved that day felt embarrassed to have been on that pitch. There was most definitely a score to be settled.
As the game kicked off it was clear it would not be so one sided this time. Indeed the main difference last time was the Premier centre forward, who scored 7 goals, and fortunately for Gav, he was on the sideline.
Early on BA had a lot of possession but struggled to do anything productive with it, all to often the final ball went astray or a poor touch gave it back to the opposition. After twenty minutes with no score a quick free kick enable the nimble Premier forward to get in the box ahead of Yeasty. Yeasty, sensing danger, slid in and went for the ball, just as he got close to it the forward pushed it out of his reach and the inevitable happened. Snippered. In fact it was a certain penalty and there were no complaints. The penalty was dispatched without incident and BA were behind.
Following the goal the match continued as it had before with neither side taking any control. However that was soon to change as half time approached. Dean Leow won the ball on the half way line and played in Timmy Mooney. Wannabe ambulance man Tim, fresh from delivering his baby, strode on purposefully towards the Premier goal. With half the BA team shouting 'SHOOT' and the other half (who knew Tim's game better) shouting 'PASS.' Against their better judgement Tim decided to go for goal. From nowhere a right footed belter flew into the corner of the net via the keepers hand and BA were level. As the ball returned to the centre for kick off, the half time whistle went.
Buoyed by the equaliser BA's team talk was positive. If its level and we're in 2nd gear, the game is there for the taking if we turn it up a notch.
As the second half kicked off it was clear that the BA boys had turned it up several notches. Within two minutes Dazza won a strong challenge and played the ball into King, King out to Leow and then to Garlick, Dazza meanwhile had continued his run and was now fast approaching the box. Garlick dinked the ball into the perfect spot, one bounce and Karzee buried the ball whilst on the run. 2-1 Get in there my son.
10-1 was beginning to look like ancient history by the time Dean Leow barbequed the Premier full back and crossed in for the simplest of finishes. Albeit it was not that predator Kingy that finished, but an own goal from the Premier centre half. 3-1.
Premier Sports were left wondering what had hit them. 3-1 was not enough and BA wanted revenged for that mullering. Shots rained in on the away team's goal. Kingy in particular was shooting from everywhere without any danger of hitting the cow's arris.
Fortunately Whitey was not suffering the same problem. A neat ball inside found the lanky front man in a yard of space, a drop of the shoulder and a precise shot followed that was far too good for the Premier keeper. 4-1 and let's all have a disco.
Now for most teams you would expect the game to fade out without any scares. Now all of BA's fans know from experience, that is never the case. Again they were proved correct. This time a 30 yard belter that flew passed Trig. 15 minutes to go and Premier thought they were back in the race.
Luckily for BA they quickly went and scored the clincher almost immediately. A long ball from Trig was well controlled by Kingy and he played the ball nicely into the path of new leading scorer Whitey, confidence still flowing through his veins from his earlier strike, one touch onto his right and he let fly a venomous shot that rose and bent out of the reach of the keeper. 5-2 and game over.
Overall a really, really good team performance. possibly the best of the season. 1-14 played their part and the new year looks promising.
