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Hachioji park, Sun 4th December 2005. Having reached the heady heights of 2nd place in the league after last weekends victory Barbarians were hoping their winning ways would continue and that Sunday would be the start of a cup run. Once again Barbarians were able to field a strong team but subs were in short supply this week.
In goal was Fred, leaving John Mac to fill his place in central defence alongside Fergs, Hideki & Jimmy completed the defence. Midfield was Muramoto, John Stokes, Rouven & Richard, with Danny & Mark up front. On the bench was the half fit Hussein, fortunately Hideyuki turned up at half time to offer some relief to tired legs. Once again team changes and abuse from the sidelines was handed out by our injured Geordie Clarke
Barbs started well, spending most of the time in the Vags half but despite many good build ups there was not a serious attempt on goal in the first 20 minutes. Vags occasionally broke out of their own half but found it difficult to get behind the Barbs solid defence. The Vags defence was under plenty of pressure all match but things got worse when they lost one of their players due to a possible dislocated shoulder as he was involved in a clash with his own keeper trying to snub out another Barbs attack. Moving into the last 10 mins of the half Barbs were getting increasingly frustrated by their inability to make their possession count. A tremendous cross from playmaker John Stokes found Danny in the centre of the box, Danny got up well but put his header inches over the bar. Shortly after Stokes was involved again and looked to be on for a certain goal when a well timed foot in from Vags snuffed out the opportunity. With only a few minutes remaining and after a string of corners Barbs finally got a breakthrough, John Stokes playing in probably his last game for the Barbarians before his International transfer leapt to meet a perfectly weighted corner and headed down to Muramoto who volleyed in from 6 metres out. Barbs went in at the break a goal up and expecting more in the second half
Within 2 minutes of the restart disaster struck for the Barbarians, the normally solid defence was caught napping and a neat pass from the Vags beat the offside trap and as Fred came out the attacker neatly lifted the ball over him for an unexpected equaliser. For the next 10 minutes Vags looked a completely different side and produced a number of attacks down the right that had Barbarians on the backfoot. Gradually Barbarians started to get back into it and reassert themselves. An early warning for the Vags came when Rouven picked up the ball outside the box and a great shot which looked to be sneaking right at the corner of the near post was kept out by a fine one handed diving save from the keeper. A few minutes later Mark was put through and accelerated past the last man, cutting back inside and beating the keeper with a fine shot to put Barbs back in front. The Vags tried to push forward and get back on terms and this started to produce gaps for Barbarians to exploit. Soon after a goalmouth scramble that saw 2 or 3 attempts on goal should have put Barbs further ahead but desperate defending kept Vags in it. Moments later a nice build up saw Danny pick up the ball in the box on the left and a neat cut back to the middle produced a golden opportunity for Hideyuki who had started the move in the first place but he completely missed the kick giving Vags another let off
It wasn't long before Barbarians had stretched their lead, some neat passing between Rouven and Mark saw Rouven in on goal with a chance which he took with glee to make it 3-1. With a minute to go a tremendous run down the right from Johnnny Mac and a low hard cross saw Mark in at the near post to convert from short range for his second of the match. Final score Barbarians 4, Vagabonds 1
Man of the Match : John Stokes
Match Reporter : Richard Carden
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