Mens 2nd XI Match Report
Potters Bar Mens 2nd XI v Welwyn Garden City 4th XI
16 January 2011 | by Anthony Levy
A Sunday rearranged game against promotion (and traditional!) rivals from Welwyn was always going to be a tricky affair given the experience of the opposition and the fact that the Bar players selected had either been in tiring and difficult games the day before or involved players who had not played since the pre Christmas bad weather (or in Tony Sayers’ case since last season!).
Although Bar started off confidently with Chris Filbey prominent on his return from injury on the right wing and with Andy Stokes and Miles Tomkins looking to have plenty of pace up front. Too often however the final ball was lacking and in general the passing was nothing compared to the standard of the day before. Gradually Welwyn got themselves into the match and not long after Geoff Smith had been called upon to make a save close to the goal, they took the lead on 18 minutes when a cross in from the right hand side was neatly turned in.
From here on, until the final 10 minutes the game was a tedious affair with no significant chances to speak of. Bar wasted 6 short corners in the first half with either the injection or the execution going awry and the only items of note were the two stoppages either side of half time – first the Welwyn umpire warned the two captains around the level of discussion between the players over decisions. Having witnessed a number of Bar v Welwyn encounters this may simply have been a method of defusing things early as in general the game was played in a good spirit for such encounters.
Later in the second half, despite the clock having only just ticked past 2pm, the dark clouds required the game to be stopped so that the floodlights could be put on....once Spencer’s lady had located the relevant keys! In between times the Bar half time team talk had surprisingly avoided the hair dryer treatment which your reporter had been expecting, such was the standard of the performance. In fact the best comment of the interval from Chris Filbey was barely picked up – ‘we can’t lose to team wearing tracksuit bottoms!’
However as the clock ticked away and the performance failed to improve it looked like Bar were going to go down with a whimper until a sparkling final 11 minutes. The momentum was started by finally creating a decent chance – Jon Yates fired in a free hit from just outside the 25 yard line and Miles Tomkins was unable to control the ball as it ricocheted wide of the post. Within a minute however Bar were on level terms as a Miles Tomkins pass across the D, following a useful run from Chris Filbey, was turned home by Andy Stokes.
Bar’s heads lifted and Welwyn’s dropped as Bar suddenly took control. Just two minutes later Miles Tomkins was on the run again, running into the D, taking the ball wide of the unrushing keeper, before slipping the ball back across the D for Chris Filbey to find the empty net. More was to come – this time Danny Becker took possession in the middle and fired a splendid early ball in ot Andy Stokes who gratefully slotted another to make it 3-1.
Finally everyone could relax and the score line, already harsh on Welwyn, nearly saw another Bar goal added, as with 2 minutes remaining Andy Stokes nearly made it an 8 minute hat trick, only to be denied by the keeper after another great delivery from Miles Tomkins.
In the end, a performance that was clearly worse than the previous day had brought a vital 3 points to take the side 4 points clear in 2nd place. Better was to come with a splendid pasta bake from Paul Brady for tea – with loads to go round (spectators and match reporters included!).
Final Score: Potters Bar 2 - 1 WGC
Goal Scorers: A Stokes (2), C Filbey
Team: S Randon (Capt), G Smith (GK), J Yates, N Walton, E Ogbourne, R Hughes, P Brady, M Levy, M Edson, D Becker, C Filbey, T Sayers, A Stokes, M Tomkins, J McCormick
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