BBOB won their fifth league game out of five in this one-sided game against ten man Southwick Rangers to move third in the table and within in a point of first place. It took BBOB over half an hour to get their first goal after a string of missed chances. Notably Jac Edwards had two efforts saved by the Southwick keeper and Ed Wyeth missed the target from close range after a clever pass from fellow forward Lee (Chief) Madigan. BBOB passed the ball around with confidence but at times were guilty of over playing it. In the 25th minute a long ball from the Southwick defence found their lone centre forward, his pace and tenacity found him on goal but luckily he scuffed his shot and the BBOB keeper (Craig Watson) was able to make a save.
Eventually, in the 33rd minute a well worked passing move down the right hand side found Chief in space his pass found James Sansom-Constantini, who made no mistake with his close-range effort. BBOB didn't sit back on this lead and were determined to increase it before half time. The most determined being central midfielder Howard Lloyd, his mid-air head collision with his opposite number left him with a gashed ear lobe! Nevertheless he was sure he could continue, so after replacing his bloodied shirt and with a well-bandaged head, Pudsey Ear, sorry I mean Howard rejoined the game, a real earo! Almost immediately he won a header at the far post in another BBOB effort on the Southwick goal.
Shortly after this BBOB doubled their lead with a great solo effort from Jac Edwards, picking up the ball on the left Jac went past three defenders and buried the ball beyond the impressive opposition keeper! Unfortunately Howard Lloyd was asked to leave the game by the referee after this as his injury appeared to be worse than first suspected and continued to bleed; he was replaced by Dan Buchanan. Then came the best moment of the game so far, as a BBOB attack was broken down by Southwick, Chris Thomas made a great tackle to win the ball back on the edge of the area. The ball fell to right back Paul Barton; his well struck low drive eluded the Southwick keeper, who could only get a touch on it as the ball sailed into the bottom right hand corner of the net! Half time 3-0.
BBOB continued to press in the second half but again found it difficult to beat the Southwick keeper who seemed to get something on every effort, in fact on all of Dan Buchanan's efforts, and he had a few! In the 53 minute centre back Sam Hamberger was replaced by Josh Staniforth and centre forward Ed Wyeth was replaced by Ben Wheatland just after this. Ten minutes later BBOB finally made it four when James Sansom-Constantini was brought down just inside the opposition penalty box. He fired the resulting penalty kick past the Southwick keeper, despite the keeper’s poor efforts to put him off!
Two minutes later Chief made it five after some good work from Ben Wheatland, his pass found Chief in the six yard box where he made no mistake with his close range tap in! The BBOB defence were hoping for a clean sheet in this game, and certainly did well to achieve this, firstly, a last ditch tackle from left back Keith Churchward in the 75th minute denied a goal scoring opportunity for a Southwick forward and then a great tackle was made by centre back Adam Leaver after a rare Southwick break, his outstretched leg won the ball cleanly, he turned and immediately set BBOB on another attack down the left hand side. The final goal of the afternoon came from a quick throw in by right back Paul Barton, the ball found its way to Chief just inside the box and his well taken effort screamed past the Southwick keeper into the net.
A good performance from BBOB again, a clean sheet, plenty of chances on goal with well worked possession football. Unfortunately the opposition kept the score down, and the goalie wasn't even their usual keeper apparently!! Just to confirm to everyone, H's ear was split clean through and after a long wait at the hospital they stitched it up, six stitches in all (good job we didn’t win 12-0) and it finally stopped the bleeding!
