The B&A were looking for their first league win against table topping Eden Rangers this week and after their sketchy run of form it had now turned in to a must win game for boys in Black in Red.
The early signs were poor with Thomas Bayley and Slug Gardiner both pulling out with injuries. This meant a re-jigging the team at the last minute.
Paul Hathaway dropped in to the back four to partner Kenny and Hobbit with pushed forward to reunite his partnership with his life long chum Craig Hemmingway Gosnell.
The game was tight and chances were at premium early on. Rangers best effort was a stinging free kick from 30ish yards out but Bignose was equal to it and turned it over the bar.
With less than 15 minutes gone Bitch Cowan started to pull up with a pulled hammy. He tried to run her off but 5 minutes later he was replaced by the ever enthusiastic Merv.
Just as Bitch left the field we conceded another corner, this time the Eden boys made it count. The little fiery Ginger lad nipped in at the near posted leaving his marker, Baggo wandering around at the far stick counting holes in the net. 1-0.
Two minutes later it got worse. Gandhi, who has been enjoy the freedom of playing left back in recent weeks slid in to win a tackle and never got up again. Luckily Pat was on the seen as he has become something of an expert when it comes to knee injuries. Gandhi was dragged off the pitch and then carted off to hospital by Pat and the future Mrs. Baggesen. He was replaced by the original B&A hero, the fans favorite, the highly skilled and dynamic left back Adam Harrison. And straight away it made a difference, within minutes of the change the B&A were back on level terms. Hobbit played a superb ball from wide on the right straight on Gozzy toe from about 40 yards away. Gozzy made the rest look easy, his first touch took the ball under control and also turned the defender inside out before he slotted the ball away.
Again though Blackham became their own worst enemy. Another Eden Rangers corner and another case of slack marking. Fair play it was a good ball in and a good header but we didn’t even make it hard for them.
We went in at half time 2-1 down, but in a very positive frame of mind. We were playing some of the best football we’d played in weeks and were battling for every ball. Shaggy was getting stuck in and he and Ferg were really working the midfield.
For a large chunk of the 2nd half Eden Rangers were having all he possession and applying a lot of pressure to the B&A back line. Some good last ditch tackles were needed, mainly after Hathaway’s air shots!! Junior Slade kept us in the game with an amazing goal line clearance with his head. The most encouraging thing at this point was that we were giving away corners and not conceding goals.
But as the game wore on he started to peg them back and create chances. Again Shaggy was having a great spell, and it was his dogged persistence that led to the equalizer. After twisting and turning and then bundling through a couple of tackles in the Rangers half the ball broke to Gozzy in their box and he poked it home to bring the scores level.
Not long after Baggo had a great chance to put us in the lead, a cross field ball was missed by all the defenders and Baggo nipped in to take it round the keeper but couldn’t quite force it home with the keeper recovering very well and making a fine save.
The winner eventually came and it came from a rather unlikely source. Hobbit went scampering off down the left with the ball with Gozzy making a steaming run up the middle calling for the ball. The Hobbit composed himself and then put good looking ball in towards Gozzy but it was cut out by the Rangers centre back but he could only manage to nudge past the on coming goal keeper and ball trickled over the line.
For the 1st time in the game we were in front.
Again we did are best to make it hard for ourselves. A loose ball came rolling back towards or goal with 4 defenders and not a blue shirt in sight but rush of blood to old War Horses head and Bignose came flying out of goal and hoofed the ball as hard as he could out for a throw in “DON’T PANIC”
He made up for it in the last minute by coming and claiming a corner that was curling dangerously in to the box.
We managed to hold on for the 3 points to put us within 2 points of top spot and 2 wins away from guaranteed promotion.
