ANOTHER OASIS IN THE DESERT

BEHC Highwaymen 3 Gillingham Anchorians Men's 3s 1

It's a bit like an old 33 rpm vinyl record with a jump in it, as it was the same old song yet again from the Highwaymen before Storm Dennis struck Mottingham with a vengeance.  For the third time in the last four fixtures the men in red came from behind to record a great victory at LMG / College Meadow and consequently head back up, albeit temporarily, to third spot in Division 2.

For the first 25 minutes, however, nothing had looked less likely than a home win, as an excellent Gillingham development side completely outplayed the hosts, who were pretty much permanently parked in their own half.  The visitors are not prolific scorers, but they made the most of a breakdown in play following a short corner to take the lead before ten minutes were on the clock.  That they did not add to the 1-0 scoreline was down to a very accomplished performance by the whole defensive unit, each of whom made key interventions at vital moments. Phil Kinch executed some great low blocking tackles throughout, whilst keeper Rupert Greaves excelled from start to finish, by commanding the D, by narrowing angles and, if all else failed, by playing human skittles with encroaching forwards.  The pick of the saves was probably a second-half block following a shot from a short which he paddled round the post with his left pad.  Best of the whole bunch by a narrow margin, however, was Richard Cleall, who marshalled his troops with General Montgomery-esque acumen and led from the front for the whole campaign.  It was in fact the first time that the defence had let in less than two goals in a league fixture since the last match against the same opposition in early December.

The Highwaymen huffed and puffed in the opening period, and probably managed as many scuffed passes, mishits, misdirected passes, kicks of the ball and cheap concessions of possession as they had done in the first half of the season combined.  Nonetheless the team seems to thrive like a camel ... starved of possession, territory and any likely sporting nourishment, it can still call on its reserves to survive a drought and spring a surprise - a truly nightmare opponent capable of giving the opposition the hump at any time.  And so it proved.  The hosts scored with their first real attack, penetration of the D, or shot on target, which is what can happen when a team has some true quality in its midst.  It was not exactly a textbook routine from the training manual, but the Highwaymen's short corner on 25 minutes confused Gillingham's defence sufficiently for Phil Bunker to smartly dispatch the equaliser into the bottom left-hand corner and double his season's tally.  It got even better on the stroke of half-time as a typical Matt Robinson foray down the left led to a lovely pull back for Pat Gainey to control and finish, thus consigning his own personal goal drought to history.  Quality players always come good.

How on earth it was 2-1 at the break, nobody knew, but this was pure Highwaymen routine in 2019-20.  The best of the goals was the last of the three, a sweeping move the length of the left wing, Bunker picking up a pass out of defence to unleash Tony Mitchell with a log pinpoint diagonal pass.  After some smart interplay in the D, Robinson took his season's quota to 20 in all competitions with a cool finish to give the home side the luxury of a two-goal margin.

Then it was back to facing the constant sandstorm and starvation rations, whilst Mitchell ate up valuable minutes dribbling into the wilderness, collecting fouls, picking up free hits and generally giving the defence a breather whilst running the clock down. 30% territory, 30% possession, 3 goals, and - most importantly - thanks to a gutsy, if not always pretty, team performance, 3 points in the bag too.  The cameo of the day, which also backed up the team's fantastic never-say-day spirit, was undoubtedly supplied by octogenarian super-sub Tony D'Cruz, whose effortless one-touch stop of a second-half, forty-meter pass followed by a dropped hip shuffle and short lay-off just showed the rest of the team where they had all been going wrong for the first 35 minutes!

Team:

Rupert Greaves (GK), Tim Walters, Phil Kinch, Richard Cleall, Stephen Gilbert, Phil Bunker, Ed Smyth, Sammy Chana, Pat Gainey, Tony Mitchell, Tony D'Cruz and Matt Robinson.

Man-of-the-match:

Richard Cleall - another vintage performance from the classic Cleall repertoire.  Great players always look like they have more time than everybody else on the pitch, and he looked like he had time to go and uncork a fresh bottle of Chablis whilst repelling Gillingham forays into BEHC territory.

Umpires:

Both Joni Coleman and the visiting umpire understandably lost patience with the constant backchat, particularly from the home team, who clearly felt not much of any green being rubbed was going their way.  The game itself was played in a generally excellent spirit, however, and the second-half cards were thankfully shown for some incidents of foul play, rather than dissent.