Brockenhurst 2 Hamworthy Recreation 2

14 September 2024

Back to league action, then.  And back home for Brock, after three games on the road including that excellent performance at Portchester on Tuesday.  I realised afterwards that I hadn’t mentioned how impressed I was with Harrison Fay when he came off the bench: he added some energy and more importantly some physicality, which really helped to change the flow of the game.  Good signing…

Brock starting XI unchanged from Tuesday night – a reward perhaps.  The best sight for Badgers fans was Ben Atiako-Hall on the bench for the first time since he got injured in the first game of the season.  The visitors – I can’t comment on the team, except to welcome Sonny Pike back to Grigg Lane where he put in some really strong performances and quickly became a fan favourite.

This was not, in all honesty, the best game of football.  Brock will be hugely disappointed not to have won it, and with a degree of justification, but neither side were on their best form: the ball spent far too long in the air, the game was littered with misplaced passes and poor touches, and ultimately Brock paid the penalty for not turning some excellent forward positions into clear chances and, consequently, goals…  

Not for the first time this season, the Badgers started slowly, and they could have gone behind twice inside the first ten minutes – first a deep free kick which was headed back across goal and McMurdo headed over when he should have done better, and then Roberts shooting straight at Butler.  Not for the first time, Brock settled after about ten minutes and created a really good chance, Simpson ultimately setting up Moreno whose shot was well saved by King.  But the ball ran loose, Moreno picked it up, excellent block on the line from Tom Cooper.  There had been a few moments of panic in the Badgers defence, but when Rec took the lead on 25 it was all of their own doing.  Shepperd was yet again released into space down the right, and he pulled his cross back to the edge of the box where Ben Cooper calmly sat his defender down and found the net with a powerful shot.  Four minutes later, the visitors could have doubled the advantage, a fine move setting Long clear on the left but Butler equal to the near-post shot.  The lead didn’t feel undeserved, and even though Brock started to press, the equaliser came out of nowhere – a corner curled straight in by Channell.  The defensive uncertainty continued, Francis misplacing a pass straight to Roberts who dribbled most of the way across the edge of the box but was well crowded out.  And then, two minutes from the break, the outstanding moment of the game – a cross chipped to the back post, Josh Taylor taking a moment to set himself and rifling the bouncing ball back into the top corner.  Outstanding finish.  HT 2-1

Both sides will probably think of the second half in terms of what might have been, but especially the Badgers.  A flowing team move on 54 involving Moreno and Peace-Eavis down the left, pulled back to Channell who hit the bar.  On 59, Rec should have levelled it: Ben Cooper played clean through, on his own – brilliant save Butler, just getting enough on the shot to send it wide of the far post.  Hodge bundled his way through three challenges but was ultimately crowded out, but most of the pressing was from the Badgers, aided perhaps by a sinbin for Rolls… Midway through the half, sub McCarthy-Gardiner used his pace to get beyond the defence but saw his shot saved by King, and the rebound brilliantly deflected wide by McMurdo.  And then, almost a disaster.  Butler, who was having an impressive game in goal, reprised his sweeper keeper role but lost the ball in a tackle on the edge of the box, the shot scrambled off the line by Francis and the danger finally over only when Ben Cooper blasted over the bar from the edge of the box.  After that, Brock took the sting out of the game, slowed things down, took the ball into the corner, saw the time out, until we entered the 8th minute of injury time… I know, but to be fair to the ref, there had been two slow substitutions and a 2 ½ minute hold-up while he sorted out a booking, both of them in overtime… anyway, one last long hopeful ball forward from Rec and Long – industrious, intelligent and impressive all afternoon – raced after it.  Three defenders, keeper and striker converged on the ball but it bounced most kindly for Long who lofted it over Butler to snatch a last-gasp point.  And if that description sounds familiar to Badgers fans, look back to the report of the game against Bournemouth Poppies.   FT 2-2

Ultimately then it was only a point, and it will have felt like a defeat to Danny and the players I’m sure.  It does to me, a little.  Hard to pick a man of the match – officially Tyler, could have been Will, could have been Luke, nobody had a stinker but likewise no one player really rose above what was, overall, quite a mediocre game.  Brock tried to play in tight spaces a bit too often for my liking, with the move breaking down when too many players were ahead of the ball; but for all that, they would have been value for the win, and the late late show was a sickener.   But let’s be positive, it wasn’t a defeat, and now we have to hope that Stoneham’s humiliation by Salisbury left them badly bruised, rather than determined to put it right on Tuesday…