Won 3-2
Scorers: N.Barnes, C.Upton, O.Neal
MoM: Thomas Newell
With thanks to team sponsor MMil http://www.batchelorcoop.co.uk
Captain Sharratt was keen to reinforce ‘discipline’ as the Batchelor-Coop Millers travelled to T-Wells for the first of four consecutive away games. Debunking the phrase “no Miller left behind”, he promptly abandoned one team member to drive themselves, due to their tardy arrival for the Polo departure time!
The Millers adopted a high-press from the start and were rewarded early on. Following a fine drive along the baseline, Tom Newell’s cross then deflected up off a defenders stick and across the D for Barnes to slam home with a stretching volley. The lead proved short-lived though, as T-wells snuck one back five minutes later. The Millers still retained the better of the possession and created the better chances; Reef Upton being unlucky not to score and/or get a far post deflection, from a sequence of short corners. 1-1 at the interval, but confidence was high.
The second half was more of the same, with the Millers dominating possession. The lead was resurrected by a flying Chris Upton, who threw himself at the far post, to deflect son Reef’s well-placed short corner flick. Chances kept coming for the visitors but with a faint air of inevitability, a freak deflection, outside their own D, fell kindly to the T-Wells striker who, with all the elan of Federer, used a tennis-style overhead smash to score from three yards out! 2-2. Five minutes remaining.
The Sharratt mantra: ‘panic-precedes-poor-results’ is firmly embedded in the team psyche. Thus, with seconds remaining, Reef calmly dribbled through several oppo players towards a defensive melee at the top of the D; he body-feinted one way and played an under-the-arm, reverse slip to (uncle) Dave who put a neat cross in for Ollie Neal to tuck away the visitors third and seal the points.
After several ‘heart-raising’ moments on the journey (there and back), the ‘lucky’ few on Shazza’s passenger manifest, formed a multilateral agreement to adopt a more tardy approach to departure times in the future….