Baltic edged a nine goal thriller on a beautiful morning at Church Lane. Previous games against Wickham Park have always had an edge and this was no different.
Baltic got off to a dream start when straight from kick off the Wickham keeper picked up a routine pass back with no one near him. From the resulting indirect free kick, Dave Barrett blasted the hosts into the lead.
Wickham were shell shocked and Baltic continued to attack en masse. The lead was deservedly doubled after ten minutes although slightly fortuitously. Scott McVeigh was set free down the right with a sumptuous ball from Des Lindsay. His attempted cross arrowed past the keeper and in off the far post.
The game settled down with Wickham's number 10 in the middle of the park seeing much far off the ball and pulling the strings for the visitors. However, history almost repeated itself for the home side when another McVeigh cross almost went straight in again.
This proved to be Baltic's final positive point of the first half. Wickham Park were awarded a very harsh penalty, Paul West adjudged to have handled even though his hands were by his side. Wickham dispatched the penalty and looked a different side. The number 4, Anthony, then did his usual and rolled around on the floor screaming for 10 minutes claiming another penalty even though no one was near him. However, Wickham were soon level. Slack defending led Anthony through on goal and he was never going to miss.
After the penalty, Baltic felt a further injunction when Dave Barrett found himself through on goal, only for the linesman to raise his flag. Barrett was definitely onside and the linesman got a deserved volley of abuse for blatant cheating.
On the stroke of half time, things went from bad to worse for Baltic as Anthony scored his second of the game with a screamer from the edge of the area. Wickham went into the break a goal to the good.
The second half saw Baltic make a positional change. Cameron came on for fellow debutant Wayne, playing behind lone striker Dave Barrett with Aaron Woolhouse reverting to centre back, Arron Watmore moving to right back and Phil Broughton to midfield.
Baltic equalised in controversial fashion. Ricky Baxter whose crossing had been wayward most of the game whipped a cross in that was flapped at by the keeper under pressure from Barrett, bouncing past both of them and into the net. The linesman raised his flag as the ball was rolling into the net. Barrett may have been offside but the referee overruled the linesman and the goal stood.
Wickham retook the lead almost immediately, Anthony waltzing past 4 Baltic players and firing inside the keepers near post, completing his hat trick. To be fair, they were three high quality goals.
The host heads began to drop and for fifteen minutes after the goal they played like they were four goals down rather than one. However, following a rallying cry and a change to a more attacking formation, Baltic turned the game on its head, again in controversial circumstances.
Broughton crossed a ball from the byline which may or may not have been over the line for Barrett to tap in. If VAR or goal line technology had been available that may have cleared up the issue but the Wickham players and linesman over the far side of the pitch thought the ball had gone out, Broughton thought it had stayed in. The referee sided with the attacking team.
Wickham were incensed by this, hat trick hero Anthony walking off the pitch in protest. However, step up Baltic's own hat-trick hero Dave Barrett. A sweeping Baltic counter attack found Cameron in acres of space in midfield. He marauded forward before slipping a sumptuous ball in for Barrett who rifled a screamer past the keeper before wheeling off in celebration mobbed by his teammates.
The final few minutes were played out with Wickham throwing the kitchen sink at the hosts, but Baltic stood firm to win a great game full of drama.
