Barnstaple Town 1 Marine 2

Match Report from Pete Crockett

Six of the Best as Marine Dig Deep in Devon

There are victories which announce themselves with trumpets and there are others which arrive rather more dishevelled, shirt untucked and mud on the knees. This was emphatically one of the latter. Yet when the arithmetic was completed, Swindon Supermarine had achieved something worthy of considerable celebration: six league matches played, six won, and a return to the top of the table.

Marine have played considerably better this season. Possession was surrendered too readily, their customary fluency appeared only intermittently, and attempts on goal were about as plentiful as drops of rain during this summer’s heatwave. But football seasons are not constructed solely from afternoons when everything flows. Sometimes they are built on nights such as this.

Context matters. For Marine’s players this was the less glamorous face of semi-professional football: leaving work, negotiating a three-hour drive to North Devon, playing on an undulating surface with a pronounced slope and rather luxuriant grass, then contemplating another three hours home before the alarm clock summoned most of them back to work the next morning. Barnstaple, moreover, were hardly awaiting them meekly, having travelled to Melksham at the weekend and returned with an impressive 4-1 victory.

Marine nevertheless began brightly. Dan Warre made an immediate probing run before seeing his cross gathered, while at the other end Luke Mortimore brought Joel Halliday into early employment.

Nine minutes had elapsed when Marine struck. Brad Hooper’s surging run earned a corner and, after a brief outbreak of head tennis in the Barnstaple six-yard box, the half-cleared ball dropped invitingly to OLLY CASE some ten yards out. Head down, body balanced, connection immaculate: his half-volley flew into the net. It was precisely the start Marine wanted.

Barnstaple responded. James Moxon produced a stinging drive which Halliday saved well, although Marine remained dangerous themselves. Joe Shepherd fired wide after a succession of corners before Conor Lynch’s beautifully measured pass released Tyger Hall down the right. Hall’s low cross flashed through that uncomfortable territory between goalkeeper and defenders, narrowly eluding the advancing Warre.

Gradually, however, the evening began to change complexion. Marine’s passing became less certain and Barnstaple increasingly found themselves playing the game on their own terms. On the half-hour Lynch almost manufactured the most improbable of second goals when he bravely charged down a clearance in the goalmouth. The ball cannoned from him and skidded across goal rather than into it.

Three minutes later came punishment at the other end. Keeper Halliday, sold short by a pass towards him, could only make a hurried half hit clearance. SCOTT PIPER seized upon it some 40 yards from goal and immediately recognised the opportunity. His audacious lobbed effort sailed towards the retreating goalkeeper who, despite desperately back-pedalling and getting fingertips to the ball at full stretch, could not prevent it dropping into the net. Marine might rue the circumstances. Piper deserved considerable credit for exploiting them so splendidly.

The goal transformed Barnstaple. Red shirts poured forward, Marine struggled to retain possession and the visitors spent the closing stages of the half distinctly on the ropes. Half-time arrived with Marine perhaps rather more grateful for the interval than their hosts. Nor did the respite immediately change matters. Barnstaple resumed their assault after the break. There were scrambles, shots, set pieces and blocks as Marine found themselves increasingly dependent upon defensive resolve.

Gabriel Rogers came desperately close to completing the turnaround. Moving across the face of the penalty area, leaving defenders behind him, he unleashed a ferocious drive from some 25-yards. The ball thundered against Halliday’s right-hand post and rebounded at a merciful angle to safety. Marine were bending. They would not break.

Then came the delicious perversity which makes football forever resistant to logic. With Barnstaple dominant, Marine suddenly escaped. Tyger Hall broke down the left and, from near the goal line, floated an exquisite cross towards the far post where CONOR LYNCH timed his arrival superbly, slipping between two defenders and heading home. It was smash-and-grab football in its purest form.

Barnstaple responded by throwing the proverbial kitchen sink towards the Marine goal. There were melees, blocked shots, desperate tackles, and saves from Halliday. Marine’s football might have deserted them, but their appetite for the contest most certainly had not. Bodies appeared wherever danger threatened.

As the final ten minutes approached, something resembling equilibrium was finally restored. Marine began to keep the ball, manage the moments, and display the composure which had been absent through much of the evening.

At the whistle, Barnstaple could reasonably wonder how they had emerged without even a point. Piper and Rogers had been particularly impressive for them. Credit should be given to referee James Long and his assistants for their handling of a competitive match which remarkably required not a single yellow card.

Bobby Wilkinson acknowledged post-match that his side had fallen well below the standards they have set themselves, while expressing pride in the character with which they had survived a difficult evening. He also thanked those Marine supporters who had undertaken the long midweek journey to North Devon.

There is an old football truth that good sides somehow acquire points on evenings when their football qualities temporarily desert them. Marine supplied persuasive evidence for it here. The flowing moves and sparkling football of better performances may live longer in the memory. However, there was something equally revealing about the belligerence, tenacity, and collective refusal to yield displayed in Devon. An ugly win? Undoubtedly. However, six wins from six possesses a beauty entirely of its own. A beauty that sees Swindon Supermarine sit proudly at the top of the table.

Come on Marine!

Attendance: 186

LINE UP’S

BARNSTAPLE TOWN

Manager:	Ben Potter
Line-up:	Colours: Red & Black
No	Player	Goals	Card	No	Substitute	Goals	Card
1.	Oliver Saunders [GK]
2.	Brodie Montague
3.	Tommy Rogers
4.	Alex Moyse
5.	Adam Hill
6.	Lee Gardiner (c)
7.	Luke Mortimore			12.	Oscar Knight 80’
8.	Scott Piper	33’		15.	Joe Grigg 79’
9.	James Moxon
10.	Gabriel Rogers
11.	Josh Parry

Subs not used: 14. Luke Potter, 16. Charlie Wright, 17. Alfie Sullivan
Editors Star Player: Scott Piper

MARINE

Manager:	Bobby Wilkinson
Line-up:	Colours: Blue & White Hoops
No:	Player	Goals	Card	No	Substitute	Goals	Card
1.	Joel Halliday (GK)
2.	Sam Turl (c)
3.	Rhys Tyler
4.	Olly Case	9’
5.	Jowan Partridge
6.	Zach Rugman
7.	Conor Lynch	67’		15.	Sal Abubakar 77’
8.	Brad Hooper
9	Dan Warre			12.	Jacob Bancroft 59’
10.	Joe Shepherd			14.	Marcel Lewis 59’
11.	Tyger-J Hall			16.	Tawana Changa 77’

Subs not used: 17. Jamie Edge
The Editors Star Player: Conor Lynch