Although there were no neutrals present... but you get the drift.
This game had everything. End to end action, great keeper saves, last ditch tackling, over embelished dives and goals, goals, goals...
When The Revs face a new team, in this case recently relegated Bayer Neverlusen, they are always cautious. The team sits back and sums up their opposition, almost waiting to see what they can do. And before you know it you’re a good few goals down. This has changed somewhat recently though.
The Revs came out of the blocks and were straight into the opposition from the get go. Opportunities and good positions were been made. Hartrick was holding the ball up well and playing in team mates, in fact Hartrick looked like he was having fun in the first half.
D. Pinkstone was also having a whale of a time seeing plenty of the ball and running at the opposition causing mayhem. A few shots rained on their keeper, who dealt with well enough but certainly wasn’t a good keeper by any stretch of the imagination.
Eventually the deadlock was broken. With less than 5 minutes on the clock a ball over the top from Myers out wide to Beardall who cushioned it into his path and whipped a delicious ball into the middle for Hartrick to steam onto and finish with aplomb.
The opposition were soon piling the pressure on though. It very much was an end to end game, neither midfield dominating proceedings. The opposition, though, resorted to a lot of long range efforts that Myers was always going to deal with, but eventually the defence was breached with a pretty scrappy goal inside the box.
The old Revs would have let that hurt them, but almost immediately The Revs hit back with an almost carbon copy of the opener. This time it was Steane, in a rich vein of form at the moment, who whipped the ball in towards Hartrick who smashed the ball home into the same corner as the first.
But once again it narked the opposition who bombed forward pinging shot after shot towards the Revs goal. This time one of their long range efforts did work though. P. Pinkstone facing up his attacker who smashed a bending ball round, blind siding Myers and in it went.
The half came to an end and the opposition were smelling blood. They had come back twice and were not in the mood to go behind again.
Sure enough they came out the blocks and went straight for the kill. Tempers now and then threatened to spill over, both keepers involved in potential danger, but escaping with free kicks. The opposition ran the defence ragged at times, but even though it was scrappy, The Revs held strong until eventually a tame shot came into the box and Steane misjudged opting to slide kick it out, but instead turned it into his own goal to give Bayer the lead for the first time.
This is the difference from the first half of last season. Going behind would have destroyed the confidence and no doubt led to more goals for the opposition, but The Revs self belief this term is new breed altogether.
This time it was The Revs up and at it and into their faces. Bayer’s lead lasting a matter of a minute as Steane slipped in D. Pinkstone who went one on one with the keeper, and unlike last week, finished low and hard and into the bottom corner for the equaliser. Very much a confident built finish by Pinkstone.
With still 10 minutes to go it turned into an arm wrestle of a game. Back and forth, neither team wanted to lose at this stage, but both teams still sensing a win. Everyone pulled together to ensure it wasn’t a loss and at times rode their luck too, but the game continued at a frenetic pace right up until the full time whistle.
The Revs, like last week, were not totally at their best. They certainly haven’t reached maximum capacity like they played at during games towards the end of last season, but to have 4 points out of 6 and maintain this unbeaten run shows how far the team have come.
And once they settle and reach their maximum then some teams are in for a mauling.
