Barnes Stormers 1 - 3 Soho FC
There was a storm in the air on this windy winter weekend, but sadly on this occasion it was not Barnes who were responsible for it.
Barnes had some regular players missing and their manager, Jake, who was unavailable witnessing the opening of a new Greggs. Nevertheless they put on a committed and battling display against Soho FC, who played in the division above last season.
There was, however, drama aplenty with tempers, tantrums and Brexit tackles flying around like the autumn leaves whipped up by Storm Bert.
The game started, well, about 25 minutes late thanks to Soho arriving only with enough players for two games of Padel (8). Soho FC's manager showed off his incredible negotiation skills bagging a better lastminute.com deal than Harry Redknapp on transfer deadline day by firstly delaying the game to start, then haggling his way out of a forfeit, and then by recruiting none other than Barnes Stormers club chairman, Tom Jackson, to play against his own club. Hmm.
Initially with 8 players plus Judas (sorry I mean Jackson), Soho FC were under reasonable pressure earlier on with Filipe and Ali looking lively up top, Ethan and Matt putting in an energetic and positive shift in the middle of the park, Dilraj and Hayon on the wing (I've heard that chanted before...) and Barnes defence of Young (who ironically had just turned 60 at the weekend), Owen, Andy and Richie looking very solid. Conal in goal was iconic yet hungover as ever and made some fantastic saves, but his best moment was to come later on.
Soho, with Barnes Stormers club chairman Jackson running their midfield and doing everything in his power to ensure a second defeat of the day for Stormers, managed to improve when two of their players arrived 30 minutes after a 30 minute delayed kick off - maybe they didn't put their clocks back in October. Their first goal came from a free kick, a cross converted by a header, which Stormers will feel they should have cleared.
Thereafter, despite spending a lot of the half in Soho's own half, Stormers couldn't quite string enough together to create clear chances for a goal. Soho scored a second shortly before the break which admittedly was a worldie 25 yards out into the top corner.
Barnes set about to lift their performance in the second half and changed the team around bringing on Brian and Elliot for some fresh energy.
I don't know what was in the half time oranges but Barnes attacked the second half with real vigour, and were unfortunate when Soho went 3-0 up with a hopeful lofted ball clearing Barnes defence and their striker beating the offside line to finish well.
Despite this, the game was not over yet and there were dramatic moments even Roy Keane would give a wry smile to.
Conal didn't get on particularly well with the Soho striker, and at one point ended up in a slightly heated exchange in what looked like two beached whales flapping their fins against one another on the floor, resulting in a yellow card for both. Safe to say he won't be on Conal's Christmas card list next month.
Elliot then gave Stormers hope with a goal that surprised us all, looping the ball over the keeper after Barnes broke well with Ethan bombing down the right wing and getting a great ball across the box. High on life (and possibly his meds) at that point, Elliot shortly afterwards decided that the only adequate response to losing the ball to Soho's right-back is to tackle him from behind. The ref clearly took a liking to Elliot, much like the ladies do, issuing a yellow.
Barnes continued to strengthen with fresh legs with Ben and Muhammad making good appearances in defence and Stormers had a couple of near misses in the later stages of the game but sadly couldn't quite get back level.
Manager Bugler spent most the match yelling at everyone, a sign of his affection for all involved.
A spirited display against a team who typically sits in the division above, but the talking points from the game were mostly an invisible referee, Soho's inability to use Google Maps and remember where the pitch is every year, and that Barnes Stormers club chairman, Jackson, willingly contributed to a win against... Barnes Stormers.
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