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Mousehole 1 – 1 Bashley
Promotion push takes a Bashing!
Mousehole records all its matches using a system called VEO. This camera stands at the half way line and follows the ball. When the images are put through the computer magic you get to see the whole match and also you are given a line along the bottom of the screen where white dots represent moments of action: shots and goals. Normally this line is filled. After the Bashley game there were a mere five dots.
This was a match that most observers would agree was not just a must-win but a should-win. We know that no games in this division are easy and whilst the opposition were not to be under-estimated, after beating them at home by four goals in the FA Trophy, a win was on the cards.
Bashley came with a strong game plan: don’t concede and wait for an error at the other end. They were almost perfect in the first part of that and took ruthless advantage of the second part.
A first half saw only two chances and both fell to Mousehole’s hitman Hayden Turner. The first had him latching on to a long through ball and firing towards the top corner only for the keeper to tip it wide. The second had him out wide on the right and lashing a shot just inside the post. Again, the visiting keeper was able to repel it. That was it. Nothing else to report.
Bashley had shown little going forward but with the first real chance of the second half they should have taken the lead. That it came with fifteen minutes left illustrates how difficult conditions were and how on top the defences had been. Faced with only Ollie Chenoweth to beat from ten yards out the Bashley forward panicked as the red blur hurled himself at the ball. The shot was rushed and blocked by Ollie much to the relief of the home fans.
It looked very much like this was going to be a no score draw until with four minutes left on the clock Ryan Barrett took matters into his own hands. Well feet, you know what I mean. He stole the ball from a dawdling Bashley midfielder near the half way line and burst forward. A couple of touches and then he released the pass of the match, if not the pass of the season. It took three defenders out of contention and rolled perfectly into the path of Turner. The weight of pass was so good that he did not need a touch, he just sprang into action and rolled it under the keeper.
The celebrations lasted forty seconds. This was a smash and grab victory to set Mousehole up for the run-in.
Life is not like that and football has a way of kicking you when you’re up. Within thirty seconds of the restart the ball was in the Mousehole net. To quote Shakespeare and call it a Comedy of Errors would hide the pain that the concession caused but do it we must.
A hopeful Bashley punt upfield was knocked down to Hill. His clearance didn’t cross the halfway line, where Sullivan was beaten to the header by the yellow-shirted centre half. This header was met by Ward but the ball went more up than away and landed on a Bashley head which sent it forward again. Derham was beaten to it where it fell between Barrett and a forward, the forward won it but sent it spinning into the air. When it landed Fresneda was beaten to it by the player who’d sliced it. He pushed it to the right, beat a Derham challenge and then smashed it home.
The finish itself was great but what led to it was hard to watch. There was no time left to mount a serious effort to retake the lead and so two points were dropped. It’s happened before this season and the Seagulls have bounced back and taken flight again. They need to find the resolve and the reserves of energy to do so again. The season may only have four matches left but there is still everything to play for.
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