Back in action but were Garnett still in the electrifying form which put them to the top of the Intra Mural division 3 before Christmas. In a word, No! Too much Turkey and News Year celebrating left the team looking a little bit behind the pace in the vast amount of the game and also without the presence of couple of major players the team was a little unbalanced.

The German referee was up for the encounter, after stating before the game that he had “planned for this.” Planned for what? Many were not really sure what he meant as the whistle was blown for the game to commence.

Garnett resisted continuous pressure from Wednesday as they pushed and pushed for an opening goal. At times possession was given away needlessly as Wednesday raised the tempo further. The breakthrough came with no surprise who had scored, as Garnett fell apart around an effective move from Wednesday down the right, a cross into the area for the striker to calmly slot home. The pressure continued with goalkeeper Rory Kroon pulling out some inspired saves leaving Wednesday completely puzzled how they were not further in the lead. Kroon again, just before half time tipped a fiery shot over the bar, and then proceeded to give some ear ache to the defence. The half time whistle blew with Garnett finishing how they started…..absolute %£$, i.e. not very good!

Half time talk saw many issues being portrayed around the team, with the general feeling that Kroonicini had managed top keep us in the game so we had to get back into it.

Second half began with Wednesday pressuring further and guess what Kroon with more heroic saves (any guesses of man of match yet!?). Then incredibly, out of the blew an assist from Swigg allowed Bradley to slot home and bring Garnett back to all square. This gave belief to the side that started to play much better football and create more threatening chances. Haines charged through midfield only to hit a well struck drive wide and Atkinson saw several shots fire off target after good runs down the wing.

Another Garnett attack proved much more decisive, when a through ball from Royal allowed Appleby to get a touch a ball delicately towards the goal. The ball rolled towards goal, was it going wide, no it struck the post along the goal line and in, Garnett were in front! Wednesday in disbelief of what had happened raised their game and continued to fight for an equaliser. More attacks from Garnett saw a Royal header go wide, a Bradley strike saved and another driving Haines run come to nothing.

In the last five minutes the impressive Wednesday centre back saw a slow motion looping shot come off the bar, and a series of corners cleared away. One of the final moments of the game saw Captain Simms put in a disgraceful, illegal, ill timed, horrendous, ferocious, volatile, career shattering…tackle! The player who was fouled stated to the ref that he was “the worst official ever in the history of sport”, to which our German friend said, “in fact, you are the worst player in the history of the sport.”

The referee was without any doubt wrong.

The final whistle blew with Garnett claiming a huge win over one of their title rivals!

Author: Jambo

Team: R.Kroon (MoM), R.Swigg, M.Gatenby, S.Simms, C.Nunn, B.Brown, L.Appleby 1, D.Haines, J.Royal, J.Bradley 1, J.Atkinson

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.