Niall Barker
SWINEFLEET FC 5 BBM 2
With Saturday’s home League win for Swinefleet meaning they swap places in the League position with BBM, and the two other teams above them, College Wanderers and Epworth Town both winning their respective games, it now looks like the Scunthorpe League title race is now between these 3 sides.
Swinefleet took the lead on 11 minutes with Niall Barker smashing a left foot shot past the BBM keeper. Two minutes later, Swinefleet opened up the BBM defence again, with a deep cross from Regan Allen on the right finding Cohen Vause on the left, and Vause’s swivel and shot on the turn just hitting the side netting. With 16 minutes gone though, the visitors equalised with the Swinefleet defence a little flat footed from a long throw-in from the right, with Robinson hitting a crisp drive past keeper Jamie Ward.
This equaliser stunned Swinefleet a little as their passes started to go astray, and the visitors looked to capitalise from this, and had two long range efforts that just whistled over the Swinefleet cross-bar. But, it was the genius of Niall Barker brought them back into the game. Liam Cooper and Scot Jackson played the ball between them out of defence, Cooper passed the ball inside to Danny Nicholson and Nicholson then fed the ball to the magic feet of Barker. A drop of the shoulder from Barker beat his man, and his shot from 20 yards out flew past the keeper into the net. The best from Barker was still yet to come. On 29 minutes, Swinefleet’s left-back Gareth Welsh carried the ball out of defence and played the ball into the path of Barker’s curving run from right to left. The Lionel Messi of local football then took two defenders on, weaving one way then the next, and then struck a left foot shot from 25 yards out that dipped and spun away from the BBM keeper and into the roof of the net. This third goal, Barker’s hat-trick after 30 minutes, is surely a contender for goal of the season.
Swinefleet then proceeded to play some wonderful pass and move football, and the fourth goal came on 37 minutes started and finished by Scot Jackson, right from his own penalty area. This excellent team goal involved 6 Swinefleet players, Scot Jackson, Archie Stephens, Liam Cooper, Danny Nicholson, Niall Barker and Cohen Vause, before Jackson slotted the ball past the opposition keeper.
After the half-time break, BBM started a lot brighter and the game became quite a good exhibition of open attacking play from both sides, despite the atrocious weather conditions. Swinefleet should have added to the scoreline on 55 minutes with Barker and Vause combining well, put the final pass just went astray. A strong run down the left by Whitlam on 59 minutes brought what appeared to be a soft penalty for Swinefleet, but Barker blazed the spot-kick wide. On 61 minutes, Aaron Raymond was brought on into centre-midfield, with Nicholson moving to left back to replace Welsh. and Keir Vause came on up front on 64 minutes replacing his elder brother. Dale Noon was introduced on 68 minutes to make full use of the players, Barker moving to left midfield, and Whitlam departing with Welsh for a hot shower. The goal machine Noon rolled back the years and scored from close range receiving the ball from Allen, but a linesman’s flag went up to deny him his goal.
With the BBM defence looking more and more stretched, Liam Cooper burst through on the right on 73 minutes to chip the keeper, to make it 5-1. Four minutes later, a one-two with Keir Vause and Dale Noon, saw Vause race clear, but his angled shot just went wide of the far post. The last 10 minutes saw BBM exert quite a bit of pressure on Swinefleet, with both Swinefleet centre-backs Will Sparkes and Archie Stephens having to defend with high levels of concentration. With just 9 minutes left, BBM were awarded a penalty after a trip from Jackson, and Robinson converted, for his second of the match.
The Jackie Hudson Sponsored Man Of The Match Award went to hat-trick hero, Niall Barker. Next week Swinefleet are away V Crosby Colts. All players to meet at Marshlands at 1.30pm.
