On a Sunny yet cold windy day, Team Carpy lined up against the old (Friendly) rival Barbican Pirates. A contest that in the words of the gaffer Dave Carpenter was a must win game but be wary of the opposition, down on their luck and out of form. Our concern was they would up their game after back to back loses and they certainly did.

After a bright start we quickly took charge of the first ten minutes, we failed to put the ball in the net after creating some good chances, point blank strikes saved, headers wide and missed one on ones, we kept plugging away. It wasn’t until Sean Hynes poked a ball over the top to the on-rushing Ben Sunderland to slot home a half volley to put us 1-0 up after 23 mins that the game truly alive with exchanges of possession being made and more chances being created.

Pirates quickly settled and equalised with a sloppy goal from our point of view, we allowed a ball through for their tricky winger to latch on to, concentration……. 1-1

After some snippets of good play once again we allowed ourselves to pushed back and the pirates capitalised on our mistakes, mistakes that are becoming a common theme this season, they went 2-1 up just before half time… Fuming!

The lads jogged it in, the gaffer had a few choice words to make, singling out Ben Sunderland for his lack of energy despite his goal, David Barrowdale for not using his skills to take on players and Martyn Snell in goal for folding his arms during play and at one point kicking a lump of turf when he should have been focused on organising his defence.

Changes were made on came Ben Ozanne to add some much-needed energy to the middle of the park, The choice words, the encouragement and extra instruction seemed to work as we quickly got back into the game, after some excellent work down the left hand side, and some tenacity from the young man Barrowdale got the equaliser it was well worked and well deserved. 2-2 were back in the game.

We continued to dominate and pushed forward, after 30 mins we got our noses in front, Dan Waldron appeared to score a great finish but to his dismay after the previous saved attempt it was put down as an OG. 3-2 Good now were cruising.

The Pirates attempted to get involved but we score another to make it 4-2 after Connor Mchale kicked the ball over his defender and played himself in on goal, GAME OVER or so we thought! The linesman had raised his flag, after the Referee has consulted with the Lino is was deemed we had a player interfering with play… OK 3-2 all we had to do was hold on as the pirate’s counter attacked in the final 3 mins, with a failed header and the keeper beaten at his near post the inevitable happened , 3-3 the hard work hadn’t paid off and we came away with what felt like a loss.

Mistakes need to be cut out from our game, were not concentrating and were not offering more options to each other, defensively we need to improve, we score goals, but we concede them too. It was a good 2nd half performance, but We always expect more.
Man of the Match was David Barrowdale for his industrious 2nd half performance

On to the next league game a must win game and chance for some players to make their long awaited debuts. Up the Crusaders