Won 3-2
Scorers: A.Barnes, P.Sharratt, O.Neal
MoM: Archie Barnes
With thanks to team sponsor MMil http://www.batchelorcoop.co.uk
The Batchelor-Coop Millers travelled to Marden this week, to face a team they beat 8-1 in the reverse fixture earlier in the season. The visitors started rather lethargically though and gifted Marden a lot of early possession. However, the Millers quickly worked through the gears, and leveraged the blossoming forward partnership of Ollie Neal and Archie Barnes to full effect.
Driving forward from halfway, Archie beat a couple of players before laying it off to Ollie, who bounced it back to him to continue his run into the D where he beat the on-rushing keeper with an audacious ‘worldy’ of a lob, while moving at full pace! 1-0. Within minutes, bionic-man Paul Sharratt managed to bend it like Beckham (read ‘possible deflection off somebody’) with a short corner strike, through a crowd of players, to find the backboard. 2-0.
The Millers love a bit of jeopardy though and a freak deflection, late on in the half, found it’s way past Trigger (MkII) in goal and gave the oppo a small morale boost. 2-1. The second half saw Archie turn provider for Ollie, with a fierce pass to the back-post which Ollie managed to deflect (with a heavy dose of self-preservation) high into the Marden net. 3-1. The Millers continued pressing, coming close to extending the lead further through Archie (good save from the GK) and then Connor with a torpedo of a shot that went narrowly wide.
The Treasurer drew murmurs of appreciation from his teammates when he embarked on one of his tantalising, trademark left-to-right runs midway through the half: with the ball (and his legs) riding very close to the precipitous edge of self control! As tiredness crept in, Marden managed to force a string of short corners late in the game. They eventually managed to convert from one of these, despite several awesome saves from Trigger in goal. A comfortable win (despite the score-line) and a ‘sizzling’ all-round display from Archie.