Having lost their last four games the vets were looking to recover some pride against their old adversaries Hills Farm Lane Vets on Friday. As is usual with ‘the Lane’, they had a couple of ‘youngsters’ and to match this we drafted in young Steve Partlett & Wei Li as honoury vets for the day. The venue was the Holbrook Club, the ground in great condition following some heavy rain-showers the previous night. Baptists lined up with 14 players, with at least 5 of them reporting in with injuries of various sorts, the new manager was hoping that he would still have 11 fit players come the end of the game.
The game kicked of with Baptists playing down the hill and putting plenty of early pressure on the Lane defence. Good work all over the pitch snuffling out the opposition and providing plenty for Steve and Ian to chase up front. Several balls crept across the face of the Lane goal but Baptists were lacking the final touch to make their dominance count. The best of the early chances came to Ian who had his shot parried by the ‘keeper when through on goal. After 30 mins the first of the rolling subs was made with Dexter brought on up front in place of Ian, and Ali on the left in place of Darren. Dexter immediately made his presence known and with almost his first touch of the ball shot just over the bar from a couple of yards out. Ali caused plenty of trouble down the left and just before half time produced a ball across the face of goal for Steve to slot in for 1-0; no more than we had deserved.
Half-time came with Baptists 1-0 up and looking to play up the hill in the second half. As the second half commenced, opposition pressed as expected, helped by the slope but created few chances with our back four playing some solid defensive football. A special mention deserved for Mark Todman playing his debut for the vets and putting in an accomplished performance at left back.
Baptists nerves were calmed half-way through the second half when Steve curled in a beautiful free-kick into the top corner of the goal from just outside the area for his second, however minutes later the Lane pulled 1 back when their young striker finally managed to get in the gap between our back four and Carl and slot home for 2-1.
Baptists continued to win the midfield battle and play their passing football with Ali still getting plenty of joy down the left and providing good service to the forwards. Eventually one of these was made to count with Dexter firing Baptists 3-1 ahead which was how it was to finish.
All in all this was a very good performance by Baptists. Some great battling and passing all over the pitch and a very solid defence giving away very little so ‘well done’ to all who played.