Crammond

Rooney        Webb          Robinson       M Menton

Cave          Mercer          Buck           Skilbeck

Sherwood (2) (MOM)      P Menton

Subs:Allen (Cave), Pearce (P Menton), Mallie (Skilbeck)

Great win..

Not much of a football match in truth, on possibly the windiest day ever seen at Benson Park, but Garnett battled hard, showed a lot of character and commitment, and won the game thanks to two quality strikes.

They got off to a flier with a morale boosting opener after about 27 seconds, Sherwood rifling a fine shot into the top left corner from the right hand side of the box. Garnett played pretty well after that, but with the benefit of a strong wind behind them, they perhaps didn't get as many strikes on target and work their keeper as much they might have. In fairness the strong wind did make playing through balls a difficult art.

Cramlington definitely came back into it as the half wore on, and played some good football into the wind as half time approached. It looked like the second half was going to be like the alamo....

However, everyone rolled their sleeves up and battled hard in the second half - Garnett were tigerish in midfield, hunting in packs to win the ball back. They were penned back most of the time, and dropped men in behind the ball, but looked a threat on the break. And so it was - a good move forward saw the ball break to Mark Menton at the side of the box, and his excellent cross was headed in by Sherwood for 2-0.

After that Cramlington pressed forward a lot but never really looked like scoring. They got a scrambled goal following a bit of a melee late on, but Garnett managed to see out time for a deserved win.

Lots of commitment and effort, and Garnett looked a lot more solid, having put some of new coach Phil Kyle's suggestions on keeping a better shape into practice. They also showed an aggressiveness and desire to compete and win the ball which they'd perhaps lacked of late.

All in all a good win, which puts Garnett back in the mix - lots of teams are capable of beating each other, so with a good run of form now you just never know.

Sherwood shaded Mercer's all action display for the mom award, but all 14 players did their bit.

NB: The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the
views of the Gosforth Garnett Bohemian Football Club as a whole.