BARROW TOWN 1-2 ARNOLD TOWN: light-hearted match report by THE MOWDOG...

Arnold Hand Barrow A Harsh Lesson…

Barrow Town 1-2 Arnold Town

Damp mist swirled beyond the sunset near the River Soar, a referee with such good, enthusiastic intentions probably wished he’d stayed home to watch a baking programme, as players complained, calculated and criticised, then after a busy, scoreless first-half, Arnold benefited from the odd goal in three to claim the points, although the match was close until the end. It WAS an odd goal which won it, too, with a Barrow clearance by Finlay Fletcher smacking against visiting striker Stephen Cox and ricocheting from 17 yards into a corner of the net. The harassed official kindly awarded the hosts a penalty to offer the encounter some intrigue during the second period but the guests held onto their advantage, despite the best efforts of Barrow’s Jordan Lever, who was fast, delivered some fine crosses from the right flank and became embroiled in a real battle with Arnold’s left-back Tariq Nadif. Poor finishing was Arnold’s Achilles’ heel, whilst Barrow were denied twice in the opening half by smart saves from Arnold goalkeeper Ross Cherry.

Nice weather for a toss...

The sunset Soars...

It hadn’t escaped my notice that Barrow’s club logo features the plesiosaur Atychodracon megacephalus, a fossil of which was found in 1851 in a lime pit outside the village and subsequently nicknamed ‘The Barrow Kipper’. Hence I’ll refer to the Barrow team as The Kippers in my report below, whereas Arnold, whose name reminds me of the song ‘Arnold Layne’ by Pink Floyd and therefore, by default and courtesy of an old TV Western series ‘Bronco Layne’, they can be the Broncos for this match only… No worries, it’s what I do. 

Well, what would YOU photograph?

A scene to typify non-league...

The Broncos began the stronger and pushed forward, causing some concern for the home central defenders but skipper Fran Finnemore epitomised the English central defender with his leadership and all-round battling qualities. Stefen Whitley’s right-side centre took a while to clear by The Kippers, before visiting kipper, sorry, skipper James Price, he of the cavalier hair and willing left boot, curled in a free-kick from the left flank, only for the ball to be cleared back to him and his bludgeoned shot felled a Bronco, who needed attention. The ball was turned into the Barrow net as the move continued but an offside flag had already been raised. Whitley benefited from a charity pass by The Kippers but after turning inside from the right, his shot wiggled like the slug on my front lawn as it trickled wide of the near post.

Darkness falls...

Chilton in space...

Suddenly though, The Kippers pushed onward and it was right-sided attacker Lever who took the plaudits with a strong run at inside-right and a shot, which was deflected past the right upright by a defender. The flag-kick provided some consternation in The Broncos’ defence and the ball dropped perfectly from Barry Payne’s headed clearance for Carl Benson to strike at goal with a volley from 12 yards but ‘keeper Cherry made an excellent instinctive save, diving to his left. Benson was like a bull terrier chasing his rubber ball in the Barrow attack but although partner George Himan’s movement was admirable at times, it was Lever who threatened the most. Two fast runs were halted by superb tackles from visiting left-back Nadif but it was The Broncos who went close again, when defender Corey Nightingale rose to meet Price’s right-side free-kick but a slight deflection took the ball away for a corner, which came to nought.

The ref begins to be agitated...

Benson rushed off, terrier-like again but sliced the ball into the hedges (Benson? Hedges?) and from another Lever sortie on the right, his cross was fluffed by visiting skipper Price, leaving another fellow whose hair was tied from his face, Chris Davies, to fire a good, low, instant drive at goal, only for the agile Cherry to leap down to his right and push the effort aside with some more excellence. I thought at the time that it was Himan’s shot and said as much on the video clip, so apologies to Davies! Craig Meakin was off target beyond the left upright for the guests, a fine Nadif run ended with a bit of a reckless slide, yet the ball was shovelled right for Barry Payne to shoot from 18 yards but his effort rose much too high. Soon though, with the visitors rousing themselves again, a decent move let to a sideways pass right, from Payne to Whitley, who from an ideal position, appeared to lean back slightly and his effort rose disappointingly over the crossbar. A brilliant challenge by Davies prevented Cox from getting in a telling shot from 16 yards, Ross Chilton’s cross from the right added pressure to the home defence but The Kippers broke away, with Benson after his ball again, at inside-right again, but his generous low pass into the penalty-box was not quite accurate enough for Himan to get onto.

Some argumentative issues had begun to rear their heads and indeed their elbows, with players complaining to the youngish referee about stray arms in jumps and Lever was cautioned for his verbal indiscretion. Half-time arrived and with the assistants having waited for the referee to award occasional throws before flagging themselves afterwards on a couple of occasions, the main official himself would certainly become a little intimidated by the barrage of complaints to come his way later in the encounter.

The second-half began with the ball being moved from the left by The Broncos, through Payne and Reid, and there was Whitley, inside-right, 18 yards out, to smash the ball powerfully into the left corner of the home net. We all wondered why he hadn’t done that earlier… 

Whitley's boot has found the target at last...
0-1...

Almost every time Lever levered himself free on the right-flank, he caused problems for The Broncos with his running and his deliveries from wide positions and one low cross was almost cleverly nudged goalwards at the near post by Himan but Cherry plucked the ball from the turf. A fine left-side corner by Jack Reid, a hard worker for the guests, was glanced by the head of Nightingale at the near post and home custodian Josh King could only stare in anguish as the ball bounced past the far stick. And then Cox displayed all the skills one needs as a striker, by turning his body, probably shutting his eyes and praying the ball wouldn’t hit him, 17 yards out and thereby, quite unintentionally redirecting a clearance by Fletcher into the left corner of the net, after Price’s long free-kick appeared to have been dealt with by Barrow. The Kippers smoked with anger… Maybe Cox will watch my video clip to see what happened because I think he was watching a heron flying off into the sunset at the time.

More official hassle...

Cox has inadvertently netted goal 2 for Arnold...

Incredibly, a third goal came about moments later, but this time, a trifle fortunately for Barrow, when the referee was moved to award a penalty to the hosts, when a loose shot struck the busy Craig Meakin on the arm, maybe his hand. He was cautioned, partly for his vehement protest, probably and Himan strode forth to shoot a neatly placed penalty into the bottom left corner of the net.

Finnemore and Cox...

Slater and Payne, the well known dental practice...

Soon afterwards, it was revealed that Whitley’s shooting had retuned to its former self when a fine cross from the left by Payne was volleyed over the bar from a good position by the winger. A period of unsatisfactory play ensued then, with substitutions, accusations, cautions but no more goals littering the contest and it was Finnemore who was yellow-carded first, before home midfielder Davies, who had ball-won successfully on occasions, was replaced by Tom Wood, whose name reminded me of a great canal-side pub and restaurant at Rowington, Warwickshire, called the Tom O’ The Wood. Thought I’d mention that. A foraging run by Kipper Shaun Martin ended with a weak Wood shot for Cherry to fall right upon, Luke Smith replaced Reid for The Broncos, Price rose well but headed Smith’s right-side corner over the home bar and Cox was replaced by Simba Ganyiwa for the guests. A fine run and cross by Lever found Benson beyond the far upright but his very acute shot rose over the goal-frame and it took both Finnemore and Joe Slater to block Nadif’s shot, following a fine and surging run into the left-side of the Barrow penalty-area by the visiting left-back.

Finnemore and Payne...

Benson was cautioned but then did well to cut inside from the right, received a rebound from his first release, then drove a first-timer from 19 yards, which Cherry fell left to save with a little difficulty. Patrick Brannigan replaced Whitley for The Broncos, before King raced from goal to beat the latest substitute to a through-pass at inside-right. It was decided by Price and Arnold’s Payne (Arnold’s Layne, surely?) that their team should play out the final moments near the left corner-flag, which they did and I guess that although Barrow will feel that Cherry had made a couple of fine saves and that they maybe deserved a point, it seemed in truth that Arnold had done just enough to win the match, for several of their wild efforts at goal, plus close things, had masked some good approach work. 

Payne in the corner...

British Bulldog, or what?

More corner work...

Wasting seconds...

Scrimmage...

The two skippers were fine leaders; Nightingale was solid, Nadif was quick and Cherry played well in goals for the guests but the foraging Benson, the interesting Himan and the very dangerous Lever were always prominent for the hosts, who wore numbers on their shirts, which were not always easy to distinguish between, with 3, 5, 6 and 8 particularly tough to identify. Too often in the second-half however, Lever was abandoned in huge amounts of space, as colleagues surprisingly used more closed channels for their creativity.    

Game over...

Famous in Barrow are Johnnie Johnson, the World War Two fighter pilot and Theophilus Cave, whose memorial in the local church reads as follows:

“Here in this Grave there lyes a Cave,

We call a Cave a Grave,

If Cave be Grave and Grave be Cave

Then reader Judge I Crave

Whether doth Cave here lye in Grave Or Grave here Lye in Cave!

If Grave in Cave here buried lye

Then Grave where is thy Victorie?

Goe Reader and Report here Lyes a Cave

Who conquers Death and Buries his own Grave.”

I’m told that Theophilus will be mentioned in Holy Trinity Church’s service on October 25th… Not a lot of people know that…

After the above verse, even my match report makes some sense, perhaps…

Perhaps…

TEAMS:

BARROW TOWN:

Ash King, Finlay Fletcher, Joe Slater, Fran Finnemore (Capt), Shaun Martin, Chris Davies, Jordan Lever, Dave Coleman, George Himan, Carl Benson, Luke Winfield.

SUBS: 

Ben Law, Tom Wood, Sam Beaver, Luke Plummer, Alex Honour.

ARNOLD TOWN:

Ross Cherry, Ross Chilton, Tariq Nadif, James Price (Capt), Corey Nightingale, Jack Reid, Stefen Whitley, Ben Branston, Stephen Cox, Barry Payne, Craig Meakin.

SUBS:

Patrick Brannigan, Simba Ganyiwa, Joe Branston, Luke Smith.