Won 3-2
Scorers: Ben Lawford, Chris Upton, Neil Barnes
MoM: Ollie Holness
With thanks to team sponsor MMil http://www.batchelorcoop.co.uk
Having already secured a guaranteed Champions League spot for next season, skipper Sharratt encouraged his Batchelor-Coop Millers side to play with flair and abandon this week. Herne Bay came out the stronger in the opening fifteen, meaning debutant Ollie Holness had a busy start in goal and kept the visitors in the game (numerous times) with some outstanding work between the posts. However, twenty minutes in, and following a fantastic double-save, the home side eventually took the lead through dogged persistence in front of goal. 0-1.
Sharratt gave his side the ‘hair-dryer’ treatment at the break, claiming they’d focused too much on the ‘abandon’ comment in his pre-match talk (abandoning passing, marking, tracking back, ad infinitum) and not enough on the flair! First half positives: Ollie in goal, Reef slicing through the home side at speed, and ‘Tricksy’ Ben Lawford.
The Bay’s second came ten minutes after the break, when they turned over the ball just outside the visitor’s D and deflected in at the far post. The Millers have a penchant for the classic ‘against the odds’ Hollywood script and have oft been compared to the Manchester United side of the late nineties; in terms of determination and pushing to the end, if not in terms of skill, ability and youth!
Twelve minutes remained on the clock when tardy (meet time arrival) Hurlowdinio, ‘skilled up’ some defenders, drove to the top of the D and nonchalantly reverse flicked a pass to Lawford who put a worldie of a tomahawk into the HB goal. 1-2. A short corner in the 64th minute saw a Reef drag flick trapped between the keeper’s legs – quickest to react was dad Chris, who put the ball (and almost the keeper) into the goal. 2-2. Game-on.
With barely three minutes remaining, the ball found it’s way through a crowd of players to Barnes, operating in stealth-mode near the back post, who made no mistake in sealing an unlikely win for ‘master of the improbable’, Paul Sharratt! 3-2.
Squad: Ollie Holness (GK), Connor Grantham-Stevens, Nirpal Saraon, Paul Sharratt, Simon Hurlow, Ben Lawford, Chris Upton, Reef Upton, Neil Barnes, James Hodson, Pete Ratcliff,
Manager/ (non-playing) Captain: Dave Upton