Mountains vs Barnstoneworth D South Report

After experiencing some difficulty finding the ground, the Barnstoneworth team welcomed Damien Vane-Tempest back to the centres following a long absence. Despite it being mid-winter in high-altitude banjo country, it was a blazing sunny day, and the sweat broke out within five minutes of the opening whistle.

So did the first goal, when Brendan ‘Macca’ McCarthy took a pass, triangulated the defender to Tom Lynch and ran through to receive the cross-pass and move it on to Peter Miller who shot and scored.

Barnstoneworth repeated the performance ten minutes later when Jason Bush headed one into the goal. Mountains made some determined attacks though, and after three shots that were all caught or bumped away by Simon Ashley-Binge, got a lucky shot that lofted over his upstretched arms and into the goal.

Mountains didn’t really seem to be in the game though, and when Barnstoneworth counter-attacked down the right wing, with Ryan Bush and Tek Tea putting in some determined runs, a cross and a shot from in front put Barnstoneworth ahead 3-1 at half time.

History shows that hubris goeth before the fall however, and while the Barnstoneworth team enjoyed a jocular half-time break, recalling some of the more pathetic attempts at goal they’d made in the half, the Mountains team were silently plotting revenge.

And apparently all having a solid snort from an esky-full of Colombian marching powder too, because the team that came out in the second half was full of running and attack. Within a minute of the opening whistle, their fast striker carved a swath through the Barnstoneworth defence and bounced one in off the cross-bar. Not content with that, he did it again two minutes later, this time using the left flank and a cross from the corner. Suddenly it was 3-all and the initiative was firmly with Mountains.

Barnstoneworth struck back but the passes that had been sticking in the first 40 all went to the opposition and the game was played mostly in the Barnstoneworth half, to the point that Jason Bush, despairing of getting the ball to his forwards, took a shot from around halfway that miraculously eluded the goalkeeper.

Mountains weren’t taking that lying down though, and they came back hard to level the scores again with a frenzied assault on the Barnstoneworth line. Trevor Husk made a desperate attempt to clear the ball in the goalmouth but, from 40 metres away, the referee adjudicated that his foot was over the line and the goal was given.

4-all with two minutes to go, and a series of loathsome Barnstoneworth passes put the ball at the feet of the Mountains striker who ducked, weaved, was tackled, somehow re-gathered and passed to his winger, whose shot struck the crossbar and went in.

Final whistle.

Long drive back to watch the Terrigal Trojans smash Avoca 25-7 at the Haven. Go the Blue Filth.

Final result: Mountains 5 – 4 Barnstoneworth