Greeny (2), Eccles, JoJo
On a crisp and chilly evening out in Wapping on Monday night, Barlows turned in a pleasing performance to beat a hard working but limited Pegasus side.This stung the home side into action, and from then on, it was largely one way traffic. Greeny's industry and excellent workrate in the middle of the park saw him grab a well deserved equaliser, and further near efforts flashed wide from front men JoJo and Hooksie. Down the flanks, James and other debutant Dave Hodgetts overcame quiet starts to supply a number of telling balls into the box and give us a great outlet out wide. It was from one of Dave's forays down the left flank that led to our second goal. Forcing a corner that TC swung over, the skipper - marking his return to the side after a prolonged absence - outmuscled his marker, rose highest and crashed an unstoppable header back across the keeper into the far top corner. 2-1, and a great example of how to dominate in the air!
Barlows were immediately on the back foot however, with an unfortunate goalkeeper malfunction taking place prior to kick off, meaning we had to kick off with debutant Joey Doherty in between the sticks. Perhaps realising that Joey was not a recognised keeper of any sorts, Pegasus began extremely brightly, not allowing us out of our half and applying heavy early pressure. This eventually told when a well worked move ended with the Pegasus front man being left in acres of space to tap home, unopposed, from about 3 yards to make it 0-1.
The second half saw Joey come out of goals to be replaced by TC and Pegasus come back into the game, against the run of play, to make it 2-2 with a scrappy goal from a even worse free kick. However, the result was not really in doubt as our superior fitness levels and skill began to show. A sweeping move begun on the left by Joe saw the ball transferred quickly via Greeny to James, who delivered a pin point ball for JoJo to fall over and scramble in, in true "I-don't-have-a-clue-where-that-one's-gone" style. Nevermind, 3-2. Greeny then rounded things off with a superb 4th, dribbling half the length of the pitch, beating two men, rounding the keeper before rolling home. A moment of true class. 4-2.
The BLG bandwagon rolls on next week as we face Macfarlanes on Thursday 29th January, in a battle for 3 more div II points. A further email for that game will follow.
