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Hachioji Park, Sun 15th January. Drew’s last minute solo effort secured a 2-2 draw and a point for tie specialists the Wall Street Clash, in an enjoyable game in which they came back from behind twice and in which 3 goals were scored in the last 5 minutes.
Seconds previously Barbarians had scored from a corner to take the lead for the second time, and 5 minutes before that the Clash’s Raph had dribbled the length of the pitch and rounded the goalkeeper to cancel out the Barbarians first half penalty.
Wall Street had most certainly started the game the livelier of the two teams. A combination of Ian, Pingler and Masa in defence getting the ball hoofed up field quickly, and Drew and Spencer wrestling possession from the Barbarians midfield, supplied ammunition for a number of incursions into the Barbarians penalty area by Andy and Sid.
It soon became apparent that Barbarians too had a silver haired 40-something who kept himself in good nick in Hideki, whose speed and skill, aligned with the strong tackling of the other members of a very decent Barbarians midfield gradually pushed the balance of the game in their favour.
In the middle of the first half a desperate lunge across a Barbarian with only the keeper to beat resulted in a penalty which was dispatched low and to the right.
The half time team-talk in the Clash’s dressing room centred on getting the ball down and playing a bit of football. After following this tack for most of the second half with no success at all, Raph started his sprint from the half-way line, Andy thumped the ball into his path over a hopelessly static Barbarians back line, and the rest was history.
The Barbarians could be forgiven for feeling depressed after this game – they thought they had scored the winner with one minute remaining, this time from a corner, only for Drew, after a bit of pinball in midfield following kick off, to run with the ball to the right of the Barbarians penalty box and beat the keeper from a tight angle with a low hard drive.
Man of the Match: Spencer for his SAS heroics in midfield
Report - AD
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