We travelled over to Ealing on a hot Saturday afternoon knowing that 3 points for us would go a long way towards us finishing second in the league, and beating BB Eagles would almost guarantee they were relegated. So an important game for both sides.

As we are now without a goalkeeper for the remaining games of our season, it was important that an outfield player who could handle the pressure of keeping goal in such an important match was selected. Someone who would rise to the occasion, see the responsibility and grab it, thrive on the pressure and perform with the weight of a whole teams expectations on them. I was struggling to make this decision. Then out of the blue at 11am Saturday morning I got a text from someone who had previously said they couldn’t make it. There he was coming over the hill like the lone ranger, player of the year Nick Denny. 

BB Eagles proved in the first half that they were far more up for it than we were, and went 1-0 up when they “sprung the off side trap”. We can moan about it being offside all day, but relying on offsides with no linesman is always going to get us in trouble. 

We were lucky it was only 1-0 at half time, as we were very poor in the 1^st half apart from a couple of good interventions from Nick between the sticks. On this form he could hold his place in goal.

Half time substitutions made all the difference, with Dan Lawler dictating the midfield and Nick coming out of goal to steady the back four and also come close to scoring on two occasions.

It didn’t take long before our constant pressure told, and Dan Lawler hit a 30 yard screamer. 1-1.

We continued to push on and dominated most of the 2^nd half. Unfortunately BB Eagles broke away with about 5 minutes left and put themselves 2-1 up. This was met with great jubilation as it looked to have guaranteed the point they needed to stay up. 

Although we can’t seem to win a game at the moment we are very good at getting a draw, and proved this again by grabbing an equaliser with a couple of minutes left. This time is was returning left back Edd Jennings who finished inside the area. 

A draw was a fair result as BB Eagles really battled to get their point which I believe means they can’t go down. Well done.

Ben Doherty