Ugly Win

Last game of the term and Marlborough 3s playing Wootton Bassett at home. We were top and they were bottom so no problem even after the 2s having realised that they were playing away in Somerset on a Christmas shopping day had pinched every player under 25. Captain Andy Shaw gave a stirring pre-match team-talk “I want 85% of the possession and let’s enjoy it”. What followed delivered precisely that. What he should have added was and let’s score some goals because that minor formality proved remarkably difficult.

Responding to the removal of the youth the 3s introduced the old guard along with more youth and an exciting new talent in the form of Crossman on loan from the 2s (did I mention that they were in Somerset) whose pace, control and general awareness was so disturbing that he was asked to throttle back a bit because no-one else could stay with him. The defence were immaculate (Harley and Lane solid as ever) which was hardly surprising as the game was played almost exclusively in the Bassett 23 and most of that in their circle. Many chances came and went: not a problem because we were all over them and the pressure had to tell. During the course of the 24 Marlborough corners every variation was tried, most of them multiple times. Short corners are the opportunity to demonstrate practice and precision, regrettably we hadn’t and there wasn’t any. Even when we did get it right the Bassett keeper kept everything out.

The forwards swarmed all over the opposition with a fluidity that we have not often seen this season. Dellar came close, Ford came closer, Gill came very close and Patterson and Shaw provided numerous scoring passes: and still with 5 minutes to go it remained 0-0. At the last gasp a drive down the right and a cross from Wing on the wing led to another goal mouth scramble and Alex Ford stealing the open goal from Crossman generously helped the ball over the line to the blessed relief of the traumatised spectators. To win a league you sometimes have to win ugly and they don’t come much uglier than this.

Man of the match - Phil Gill