With Squizza and Wayne both carrying knocks and Steven Vaughan taking early retirement in the week , Baz was left with no option but to blood new signings Malcolm Wyre and (finally) veteran Dean Norman , the latter patiently waiting for his debut game . With Malc on the bench it was Deano who slotted into the vacant left back berth giving Andy Roberts the opportunity to push further up the flank oo err. Toon once again went in goal with Hick and Ben resuming their long standing partnership , that man Coop staying at right back . Pete Haddock came along and started in midfield alongside Acker with Geoff digging in on the right . Anton and Col as top scoreers were the striking choices, Kenny Botos and Luke Lloyd making up the subs bench with Malcolm. Reverting back to 442 we looked decidedly second best for the first 20 minutes but amazingly had three very good chances to go ahead. Columbian-style keeper Toon was called upon several times also and intermingled good handling with a few ‘punched’ continental type stops to keep his sheet veritably clean . On the half hour Colin linked with Robbo to send in a hopeful cross and the keeper fumbled to present Pedro with the opener and send us in to the break 1-0 and looking the better side. My half time team talk fell on deaf ears as we embarked on our worst spell of the game . We lacked gumption or enthusiasm and all the gee-ups and banter of the interval went out the window as we contrived to give the ball away at every opportunity . We lacked confidence and basically invited them to equalize which they obligingly did 5 minutes in . Pedro looked knackered and Colin gave the ball away too often as it seemed as though the 3 points might escape us . Let me mention our opponents True Briton ....at this stage they became petulant , whingeing and basically some of them shot themselves in the foot with non stop argueing over decisions with anyone and everyone .Hickers got embroiled and irritated but thankfully was calmed down by the level headed Dean Norman . Despite our lack of fluency we got back into the game and Baz pulled Anton into midfield allowing Geoff to revert to striker . Andy looped a ball over from the left onto Antons head to put us 2-1 up only for us to gift them another equaliser straight after . The game at this stage might have swung either way but the difference was our graft and team spirit as opposed to their lack of discipline and constant moaning . It looked like a rout as Geoff Smith hit a beauty and Roberts likewise with a pearler to decide what should have been a comfortable 4-2 victory , the latter earning sub Botos with a Yellow after a comment to ref Phil Taylor .We did try to give me another heart attack taking our foot off the pedal again and gave them a lifeline with a consolation which fortunately for us came too late to save them . Decent debuts for Pedro(again) and Malcolm – great performances from Roberts and Toon also- but special mention to mild mannered Dean Norman –Man Of The Match !
