Drew 2 – 2
Scorers: Ollie Neal (2)
MoM: Morgan Abbott
With thanks to team sponsor MMil http://www.batchelorcoop.co.uk
An early away trip for the Batchelor-Coop Millers this week. Having leap-frogged Gravesham last week, this fixture would decide whether they retained third place or handed it straight back to the opposition. Boasting a squad of 15, the skipper decided this was the ideal fixture to introduce ‘S4’: the Sharratt Seamless Substitution System.
The opening exchanges were fairly even and Oly Triggs, making his Millers debut in goal, settled into the match well with some confident saves. The visitors were playing into a low, bright sun, so the advantage was slightly in Gravesham’s favour. They managed to capitalise on this with a sneaky flicked goal, from open play, following a failed defensive clearance. The Millers were playing well though and Reef and Morgan were running riot in midfield and linking up well with Ben, Ollie and Tom up front.
One down at half time, and skipper Sharratt demonstrated his renowned prescience by telling his flock that they were playing well and could still get a good result, even if they conceded another goal.
Ten minutes into the second half and Gravesham proved Sharratt’s uncanny foresight correct, with a well-taken second. However, feeding off of their captain’s half-time positivity the resurgent Millers struck straight back through Ollie Neal, who turned in a Sembeh cross from the right.
After Arthur demonstrated some quality 3D skills to break through into the Gravesham twenty-five, he passed to Ben Hancock and his hard-hit, rising shot was deflected in by Ollie ‘I had to make sure it wasn’t going wide’ Neal! Parity restored and the last ten minutes saw opportunities for both sides to steal the honours but both defences held firm and a draw was probably a fair result.
The Millers retained their third place standing. Furthermore, Skipper Sharratt committed to channelling his new-found positivity into his man-management skills; evident through his post-match comments on Teamo (see image).
Squad: Oly Triggs (GK), Brad Post, Nirpal Saraon, Diego, Dave Upton, Sembeh Jalloh, Reef Upton, Morgan Abbott, Simon Hurlow, Paul Sharratt (c), Neil Barnes, Arthur Aikin, Thomas Newell, Ollie Neal, Ben Hancock.
