It was simply a must win game. Our opponents Real Politique had yet to obtain a point, and after the disappointing draw two weeks ago against Sporting Gibon, we knew we had to win and win well to pressure the team on top. It was also a long awaited return for Captain Steve Simms, who was looking to put his injury ridden start to the season behind him.

The game couldn't have got off to a better start, with less than 2 minutes gone a break by Appleby in the box lead to a slight push to send him tumbling. Referee pointed straight to the spot and Appleby slotted home with ease, as Garnett took a gift of a lead. Garnett continued to pressure and soon later a shot from Royal rebounded off a Politique hand, now that was a penalty Ref! It was waved away and arguably balanced out the previous decision.

The hard working pairing of Hindle and Dawney in central midfield controlled all the midfield battles, with Politique rarely managing to get into the attacking third, and when they did consistently reliable Doug Haines and captain Simms cleared up the mess. Continual work down the wings from Wallace and Brown and Royal and most notably Normington down the left, meant the oppositions defence were under high pressure, however a second goal failed to come. Bradley came closed to doubling the lead for Garnett, battling his way through the static Politic defence, only to see his stinging shot pushed over the bar by the goalkeeper (ironically wearing no gloves - an essential part of goalkeeping). Half time came and the score remained at 1:0 to Garnett.

A formation change to 3-5-2, with Royal moving to a more central role, to allow Normington to push further forward on the left proved to be good decision from the Garnett camp. After about ten minutes into the second half, Politique collapsed under the pressure, allowing Dawney to curl a superbly struck shot from outside the box into the top right of the goal. Garnett now accelerated into full flow. Substitutes Ally Walworth and James Thompson came on for the hard working Liam Appleby and Ben Brown, and soon, after picking up a knock to the face new signing Mike Gatenby came on for Royal. Thompson worked hard up front using his physical presence to hold off the oncoming Politique players and it was his cross which was met by the head of Chris (Ra Kelly) Normington which sealed Garnett's third. Politique managed to put several counter attacks together soon later, however with the back three of Wallace, Haines and Simms with a sweeper role, all attacks were diffused. The one opportunity Politique had was slide tackled away by goalkeeper Kroon, who was not going to let another clean sheet get away from him. The game was wrapped up towards the end with a well struck drive into the bottom left by Al Hindle to cap off another fantastic display. The final whistle blew with Garnett victorious, setting up a major tie against the unbeaten top of the league team, 'Bend Her Like Beckham' next Saturday.

Author: Jambo(Now fat Ronaldo)

Team: R.Kroon, C.Normington 1 (MoM), D.Haines, S.Simms, R.Wallace, G.Dawnay 1,
J.Royal (M.Gatenby), A.Hindle 1, L.Appleby 1 (A.Walworth), J.Bradley, B.Brown (J.Thomson)

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.