BIFC returned to winning ways against a talented but struggling Leam Royals side.
With a plethora of players missing for various reasons, player/manager Faulkner slipped into the back four, and Aaron making a second consecutive start up top with Cooper. Seb and Trinder returned to the starting XI in place of Daninini and Boycott, the latter starting on the bench. Bez and Malc also on the bench
The game was only 4 minutes old when the first blow struck, Joey being forced off with a hamstring niggle, to be replaced by Benno who was " fit for 45 Noz, no more' at that start of the game, and a definite no no at midday on the Monday. Beach came in to centre half to partner Caz.
Royals opened the scoring when Caz got left behind as the line pushed out, and could only bring down the striker before he got his shot away. With Caz lucky not to see a card, Royals got their break when the penalty went in off the post, 0-1! Royals were playing 4-3-3 which saw Bishops being over ran in midfield for the forst 20 minutes until Coops dropped in to help out as both teams battled but no-one looked like adding to the score. The best chance of the first half for Bishops came when Coops intercepted a pass from the keeper, but with conflicting information in his ears, his lob went over when there was time to bear in on goal..not to worry. HALF TIME!
The second half saw Bishops play into the sun, but thankfully the aerial bombardment was sparse as Royals chose to play it around mainly on the deck. Bishops equalised when Jordan escaped down the left and his low cross found Trinder and he finished left footed past the keeper from 9 yards, 1-1! The game was now frantic as both sides pushed for a winner, Nathan made a wonder save from a long range effort, and at the other end we were testing their keeper a bit as well. On 70 minutes Trinder was assaulted on the touchline with a horror tackle, unfortuantly the ref missed it, but our goal hero had to be replaced by Malcy Time for the last spell. With the clock ticking and a draw being settled for by Bishops, Jordan picked up the ball on the left, cut in past a couple of tackles and unleashed a thunderbolt into the roof of the net from 25 yards, a peach of a goal fit to win any game at any level, 2-1! There was barely time for one more Royals long ball before the ref blew up, and Bishops could celebrate a hard earned win thanks to some hard graft and a bit of quality.
Although on paper this is a win against a team in the relegation places of the league, this is a massive win for Bishops as we all know how tricky Royals can be on their day. Just ask Radford, Warwick Railway, Cubbington and us who they've thrashed on occasion this year, so well done the the 13 players that got on the pitch and the ever dependable Bez for a great result. Especiialy Aaron who went from being stranded at 5.15 to stealing his step dad's van to get to the game, now that's She-wolf spirit....AWOOOOOOOOOOOO!!
