An early kick-off at one due to the England international meant that a smaller than anticipated crowd of six was there to witness the A's perform an heroic turnaround in their Corinthian 1st division clash with newly promoted Rutherford. A two goal deficit was overcome and three more vital points gained as the 100% win record in the league was extended to three games.

The A's started the game slowly, perhaps adjusting to the earlier start worse than their opponents and promptly found themselves 1-0 down. Rutherford's first foray up the right-hand side of midfield proved fruitful after Jackson at left-back gave away a somewhat dubious free-kick. Rutherford, employing the classic big fat centre forward tactics so often seen in Tyneside, used this opportunity to swing in a deep cross which was met by the head of said fat man who was rather loosely marked at the back post, his looping header back across goal was turned in by another player who had failed to be picked up by the Garnett defense - the easiest of headed goals.

The encouraging words spoken by captain Kent and player/manager Blogg before the game, with Blogg concentrating on the need to "focus" seemingly fell on deaf ears as the A's failed to shake off their lethargy and, with 10 minutes barely on the clock, fell another goal behind. Rutherford's large centre forward was allowed to turn on the edge of the area, next to the by-line, and cross to his strike partner. The resulting deflected shot from six yards was tipped on to the angle of the goal by keeper Scott but, after bouncing a yard out, spun back over the line.

The management urged Garnett players not to panic and to begin playing their trademark stylish football. After a horror tackle on impressive fresher Andy "Rooney" the A's began to pass the ball well, with some one and two touch passing resulting in a couple of half-chances for Garbutt and Perry. Instead it was Murray who got Garnett off the mark. After further Garnett pressure had forced a corner, Jackson swung in a low ball which the Rutherford defense failed to deal with, Murray took his opportunity well as he turned the ball into the bottom right corner from within the six-yard box towards the end of the first half.

Perry and "Rooney" continued to link up well down the right-hand side and were a constant danger, the best example being when Perry, using his pace to get betwixt Keeper and ball inside the area, was brought down by the Rutherford keeper for what looked like a viable penalty chance. However the referee saw otherwise and waved away Perry's appeals. Further pressure from the A's and more good passing moves did not have the final touch required to score again and the teams retired for half-time with Garnett trailing by two goals to one.

Captain Glenn Kent asserted his belief that this game was there for the taking, though he stressed the need for patience and good passing to feet in a game where the challenges would be flying in thick and fast. However, when re-entering the field of play, the equalizer would come in a rather more basic, route-one, approach as Scott, for the third week running, set up a goal with a long clearance from hands. Rutherford's centre half misread the flight of the ball and was somehow nutmegged by this long kick. Skilbeck - on as a substitute for the injured Monaghan at half-time - anticipated this and collected the ball, using his pace and skill to dribble into the box and produce a classy finish to roll the ball coolly into to corner past the advancing Rutherford stopper. 2-2, game on.

Chances fell to both sides for the next ten minutes, the best falling to Rutherford's large striker from a deep corner, a powerfully driven volley was heading into the right-hand side of Scott's goal despite his dive and only the quick thinking of "Rooney" on the post, who used his chest to block the ball, which was traveling at high velocity, prevented Rutherford from regaining the lead. The corner which resulted from this also ended in a goal-line clearance, this time by Kent, on the other post, who had to come into the centre of the goal to head clear after Scott had been baulked on his way to catch the ball and the big man up front for Rutherford had turned it goal wards. Few chances fell to this player from this point onwards as the outstanding man of the match Webb at centre half kept him out of the game by winning headers and consistently beating him to the ball. After the game Webb was heard to comment that his opponent was "surprisingly weak, for a big guy."

The A's took the lead with twenty-five minutes remaining after some neat passing around the edge of the area and a half clearance set up Kent who produced a stunning left-footed volley into the middle of the goal from just inside the area.

A tactical reshuffle by Blogg saw newcomer Chris introduced at left-back with Jackson moving into left midfield and Garbutt earning a well earned rest after he had been frustrated by several chances and good strikes narrowly missing. Chris's first touch of the ball - bringing down a long clearance perfectly with one-touch - reassured manager Blogg that he had made no error in bringing this unexposed player into the fold.

All the while, Rutherford were putting some stinging tackles in on the A's, who had a battle to keep their cool against an ill-tempered team who seemed to have something against even their fellow team mates, with one midfielder heard to yell at his own right back "why are you bending over like that? You look like a ****ing poofter!" One of these tackles, coming from an overweight centre half on Skilbeck resulted in a yellow card, which failed to prevent the same player from - just a minute later - attempting to cause some serious damage to Perry on the A's right-wing. Fortunately he was unhurt, but the referee failed to take the appropriate action and this only resulted in a free-kick to Garnett.

The clock ticked on, however, and Rutherford failed to create any clear-cut chances due to strong defensive work by all in the A's back four, with Webb in particularly commanding form. With barely a minute remaining, the ball was passed towards the corner of the pitch by Garnett who were professionally running the clock down when Jackson hammered in from the edge of the area with an outside of the foot strike which rattled the stanchion of the goal as it rocketed into the top corner for perhaps the finest goal of the game. The final whistle blew soon afterward and the comeback was complete.

If the A's can continue to score freely and learn to prevent the other side from scoring two goals (which has happened in each of the last four games) there should be no stopping them in their quest to retain the 1st division title and it is beginning to look more realistic that they could extend their unbeaten run for the rest of the season if they can maintain this current rich vein of form.

Author: Rob Scott

Team: R.Scott, A.Smith, C.Jackson 1, T.Webb (MoM), C.Ossawy, N.Blogg, T.Perry, G.Kent 1 (c), N.Garbutt (C.Heald), P.Murray 1, R.Monaghan (T.Skilbeck 1)

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.