Bishops 0 Marine 1

Match Report from Pete Crockett

Unity is Strength

On the journey home from Bishop’s Cleeve and reflecting upon three hard-earned points for Marine two phrases kept returning to my mind.

The first was that venerable maxim, “unity is strength.” If ever a Marine victory was fashioned by players digging deeply for one another, this was it. The second came from one of those hymns which some of us of a certain vintage were once required to sing at school assembly: “He who would valiant be ’gainst all disaster._”

There was certainly adversity for Marine to overcome. They had arrived without Sam Turl and, by the hour, Tawana Changa and Rhys Tyler had both departed with knocks. Marine, in my view, possess three of the division’s finest full backs; suddenly all three were injured. A team less sure of itself might have succumbed to the disruption. Marine rearranged the pieces, kept calm, and carried on.

Zach Rugman dropped to left-back and Sal Abubakar, hitherto the chief tormentor of the Cleeve defence, found himself pressed into service on the right. Both gave themselves unstintingly to unfamiliar roles. It was to become that kind of evening where valour for the cause came to the fore.

Cleeve had begun with purpose. After four minutes Adulai Sambu held off his marker and, from the acutest of angles drove a low effort that demanded a good save from Joel Halliday. Two minutes later Marine’s Ollie Case courageously blocked Aaron Evans-Harriot’s effort and, from a quickly taken throw in on nine minutes, the same Cleeve player shot narrowly wide.

The hosts threatened once more after 11 minutes. Marine were dispossessed, the ball was worked to Jamal Lawrence and Halliday, in the Marine goal, gathered his shot securely.

Marine’s first significant reply came after 17 minutes when Tyger Hall struck an effort which stung the palms of Lewis Clayton. Thus, the opening quarter passed in agreeable ebb and flow. Then, after 23 minutes came the goal which was ultimately to settle the evening. And what a tremendous goal it was.

Sal Abubakar had already begun to make life thoroughly uncomfortable for the full-back opposing him. Now he left the unfortunate defender spinning like the proverbial whirling dervish. A drop of the shoulder, a body swerve, and he was gone.

Cutting into the penalty area, Sal Abubakar unleashed a shot from some 15-yards an Exocet of a shot into the near post top corner. The home keeper could do little more than observe its passage. Such was the pace and precision of the strike that the ball was beyond him almost before intervention was possible.

Marine led, and Abubakar was irrepressible. On 33 minutes an excellent Jowan Partridge pass released him on another of his excursions. The increasingly beleaguered full back was twisted first one way and then the other until, discretion having long since ceased to be an option, he hauled Abubakar down. The consequence was what the Spaniards call a tarjeta amarilla. In Cotswolidian Gloucestershire, a yellow card for former Marine player Matt Bower.

Two minutes later Abubakar materialised on the opposite flank and sent a teasing low cross through that uncomfortable strip of territory behind the defence and beyond the reach of the goalkeeper. It needed only the touch of a Marine boot. None, alas, arrived.

Still Abubakar twisted and turned again. Another defender beaten, another telling cross, this time towards Dan Warre. The ball seemed to hesitate on the artificial surface and Warre, stretching for it, could only send his shot over the bar.

Half-time brought Marine their first enforced defensive reconstruction, Changa unable to continue. It did little to diminish Abubakar’s attacking appetite. Five minutes after the restart he struck another firm effort which Cleeve keeper Lewis Clayton saved well. At the other end Sambu cleverly released Lawrence on 53 minutes, though the latter’s attempted lob carried harmlessly over Halliday’s crossbar.

Then, on the hour, came a passage which was to alter the character of the match. Cleeve appealed loudly for a penalty. Referee Ryan Price remained unmoved. At much the same time Marine lost Tyler, their third specialist full-back of the evening. Necessity is said to be the mother of invention. Rugman had already moved to the left of the defence and Abubakar, who half an hour earlier had been reducing a full-back to despair, now became one himself. Marine simply just got on with it.

Indeed, they might soon have made life considerably easier for themselves. A fine low cross found the high energy Warre in the region of the penalty spot. He struck his effort well enough, but Clayton made an excellent save and Cleeve remained only one goal adrift. With 20 minutes remaining Matt Liddiard met a home corner powerfully, his header clearing the bar by a couple of feet.

With ten minutes of normal time remaining came Marine’s own appeal for a penalty when a cross appeared to strike a defender’s hand. Was the arm in an unnatural position? Referee Price thought not - and was probably right in his call. Whatever one made of the decision the referee had at least been consistent with his interpretation of such claims.

Following immediately from the hand ball incident Tyger Hall flicked the ball goalwards. Clayton saved and appeared to turn it behind. The assistant awarded a goal-kick to the considerable disbelief of those Marine supporters stationed behind the goal.

And now came the siege. For the final quarter of an hour Marine defended their narrow advantage with a mixture of discipline, determination, and a stubborn refusal to concede. On 86 minutes the penalty area became the scene of an extraordinary mêlée. Marine cleared one effort from the line, Cleeve appealed vociferously for a penalty and eventually a clearance ricocheted out for a goal-kick.

Marine could regroup. More importantly, they could breathe. But there remained one final ordeal. Deep into added time Cleeve’s Devanti McInerney suddenly found himself advancing on goal with only Halliday between him and an equaliser. For a few dreadful seconds the travelling support could see precisely what might happen. Halliday advanced quickly, reducing the angle and the striker’s options with it. McInerney shot wide of the post.

The reaction told the story. Around Kayte Lane came the soft groans of Cleeve despair, accompanied somewhere behind the opposite goal by the collective exhalation of several dozen people who had temporarily forgotten how to breathe. Soon afterwards it was over.

The scenes at the final whistle between Marine’s players, management, and supporters were the kind football occasionally provides, and which one wishes could somehow be bottled for less agreeable days. This was no routine victory. Bishop’s Cleeve are among the strongest sides Marine are likely to meet this season. To defeat them away from home was impressive enough; to do so having lost three specialist full backs said a great deal about the character of Bobby Wilkinson’s team.

The collective team effort makes the choice of a player of the match almost an exercise in injustice. Halliday has now kept two clean sheets in Marine’s opening two league matches. Partridge and Case were magnificent at the heart of the defence, winning headers, making blocks, and timing tackles with admirable assurance. Jowan Partridge is one of those quality defenders who manages tricky situations with admirable composure.

In midfield, the returning Joe Shepherd gave a colossal performance - winning tackles, using the ball intelligently, pressing with dynamism, and providing inspirational on field leadership. He was ably supported by Brad Hooper and Rugman before necessity summoned the latter to a defensive role. Warre and Hall worked tirelessly - a threat attacking and disciplined when defending from the front.

And then there was Abubakar. For much of the first half he was virtually unplayable: quick, elusive, and forever prepared to run at his full back. His goal was a thing of ferocious beauty. Yet perhaps just as impressive was what followed. Asked to abandon the freedom of the wing and become an emergency right-back, he accepted the task without fuss and defended with discipline and determination.

So, faced with an embarrassment of candidates, the player of the match accolade is shared: Joe Shepherd, immense in midfield, and Sal Abubakar, for the goal, the wing play, and his selfless adaptation to the needs of the team. Yet there remains something faintly unsettling about singling individuals out.

In reality every Marine player contributed. Every substitute understood what the game required. In his post-match observations Bobby Wilkinson spoke positively of the togetherness pulsing through the club - the players, the management team, and the travelling followers were as one.

Football is apt to surround itself with complicated theories, systems, and fashionable jargon. Sometimes the explanation for a victory is actually very simple. At Bishop’s Cleeve Marine found it in an old maxim. UNITY IS STRENGTH.

Come on Marine!

Attendance: 273

LINE UP’S

Manager:	Paul Collicutt
Line-up:	Colours: All Green
No	Player	Goals	Card	No	Substitute	Goals	Card
1.	Lewis Clayton (GK)
2.	Jack Carter
4.	Jake Lee		51’
6.	Matt Liddiard (c)
7.	Adulai Sambu
8.	Ben McLean
9.	Jamal Lawrence			10.	Ross Langworthy 75’
11.	Aaron Evans-Harriott
16.	Steve Davis			12.	Reegan Messenger 61’
17.	Charlie Holiday			24.	Davanti McInerney 81’
18.	Matt Bower		33’

Editors Star Man: Adulai Sambu
Subs not used: 20. Jorell Sanniola, 23. Zack Kotwica

MARINE

Manager:	Bobby Wilkinson
Line-up:	Colours: Blue & White Hoops
No:	Player	Goals	Card	No	Substitute	Goals	Card
1.	Joel Halliday (GK)
2.	Rhys Tyler (c)			14.	Piers Walton 66’		69’
3.	Tawana Changa			15.	Gabe Reivers 46’
4.	Olly Case
5.	Jo Partridge
6.	Zach Rugman		85’
7.	Sal Abubakar	23’
8.	Brad Hooper
9.	Dan Warre
10.	Joe Shepherd
11.	Tyger-J Hall

Editors Star Man: Joe Shepherd & Sal Abubakar
Subs not used: 12. Conor McDonagh, 16. Jamie Edge, 17. Eldad Adjei