DROUGHT OVER
AS GOBI GOBBLES ONE UP
Brent Toss 1 Blue Badgers 3
[Floyd Yellow Socks 75 Rapson 25, Newsome 35,80]
Sunday Night Fever hit the Brent Cross Tesco's car park masquerading as a football pitch as the Merry Blue Badgers notched up a well earned victory distinguished by skill, determination and a twosome from Newsome to force the new boys into 4th place. Enough for a slight temperature, perhaps, but a fever? A Sunday Night Fever?
Let's go back to 1987. A time when all children of our fair land � girls & boys, black & white, goths & casuals, - were at one falling in love with Kylie & Jason, marvelling at Beasant's Rush penalty save and rubbing their Rubik's Cubes up and down, up and down in their pants and knickers with glorious sexual abandon.
No, not quite all children. Not one little boy. Not little Sion Rapson of Barnsley. Aged 15 and a mere 6'5" he had scored a goal that year. Everyone was happy for the lad. "Well done Sion," th said "Keep poppin' em in like that and you'll escape the mines lad � you may even get down to that there Birmingham where the real posh skirt is". But Sion was far from happy. He knew that that goal marked his entry into a desert so vast, so daunting that not even Lawrence of Arabia would come back for him � thank Allah says the camel with a lazy eye on the tall, awkward individual.
1999 - 12 dark years on countless chances, countless misses, countless tears but still no goals for Sion,. Until this night.
With the ball pinballing around the astroturf, the scene was set for the close control of 'Gobi' Rapson to finally pay dividends in the 25th minute. The ball was swung over from the right by the Ginola-like Asbury to Wilkie in the box who took it past one, two men before a deft flick to the towering inferno Rapson. One touch and he slotted it home. A natural. And did he cheer? Did he gallop around in rapture? Did he skip around like a fairy? No he did none of those things you'd expect. The lad walked solemn. His thirst had been quenched by a glass of Perrier and he wanted Champagne - and that's what the Badgers provided.
Big time.
The Brent Cross goal was bombarded by shots from Wilkie (the latecomer, on for the hardworking Barny Brocklehurst who made a vital 15 min contribution) Asbury and Rayner with a frequency deserving an 18:12 overture soundtrack. If they were the drummers, then the conductor was Newsome. "Steve's Ball". "Steve's Ball". "Steve's Ball". On head, at feet, everything belonged to Newsome and he gave it away superbly with short telling, splitting passes. Fittingly he got the second just before the break from a move he started at the halfway line and finished in the 6yard box, again Asbury the supplier of the final telling ball.
Perhaps overconfident, and after their 4-1 crushing of the Blues earlier in the season who could blame them, Brent Cross hardly troubled the Badgers in the first 45 apart from one header against the bar. Second half substitute "Yellow Socks Floyd" changed that with some startling skill, including a quite audacious bicycle kick that started to test the Badgers new cat "Kings Head Alan". Captured in a late night scouting mission to the Kings Head pub, this keeper, the landlord, came up trumps. Powerfully off his line to smother, grabbing crosses and looking every bit a Badger he fitted seamlessly into arguably the best defence in the league. No surprises, then, as McDonald swallowed up everything and spat it out with class. As Ashman claimed the ball like Mother Goose claims Golden Eggs � but with a bit more aggression. And as Bourgeois stormed forward, at one point he generously even had time to grab their Seventies rocker around the throat to remind him of the merits of being a good boy and calming down. This was, however, by and large a good spirited game save when 3 or 4 players squared up as Rayner was hacked mercilessly from behind (meanwhile Brent Cross stormed forward and nearly got a goal a la England-Argentina Campbell Near Goal Distraction Travesty � bloody hell).
There was some superb football being played down the left with the Ben and Panther linking up as though they were brothers. Panther quick, intelligent and graceful with sweeping passes, timely tackles, dazzling runs and even Cryuffies turns. Ben hard, always there in air and on astro and throwing passes down the line like David Bryant, Crown Green Bowler extrordinaire. On the right, Ian 'White White White', earning his first Badger stripes on for mangnifentico Asbury, fought hard against one of the trickiest left wingers in the league and made some excellent probing runs. Within seconds of being on White had a chance and on another day he could've bagged this and a couple more, as could've Wilkie and Panther (who actually kicked a probable Rapson second off the line!).
The Badgers dominated. Who'd have thought they would've let it slip and let a goal in to 'Yellow Socks' with 15 minutes to go? Anyone who's seen a Badger's game, that's who. And so it was that what should have been a showpiece ending finished with the Badgers fighting for their lives. The difference this time is that they not only survived - they killed the pathetic Brent Cross off completely. A 30-yard effort from Panther brilliantly saved was then trumped by a superb 35 yarder, side foot from Badger of the Match Newsome that hit the back of the net.
1-3. End of match. End of Gobi. Start of a goalscoring blizzard? Watch this space.
Team: Kings Head Alan, Ashman, Brocklehurst.BLD, Bourgeois, McDonald, Newsome S �, Rayner, Brocklehurst.MJV, Asbury (White 60), Rapson, Brocklehurst BCD (Wilkie 15) subs not used: Leetham, Jan.
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