The starting formation was very much down to who was prepared to play in some positions and Jack Hawksworth and Tom Church offering to play out of position as Centre midfield and central attacker respectively.
Ashby came forward attacking Barton’s 25 from the starting whistle. With Nathan Bond, Save Hawksworth nd Tom Woolley in defence they were unable to penetrate the back line of players.
Good attacking play from Toby Williams on the right and Rachael Cooke on the left soon found the Barton forwards and Robyn Welch looked in control attacking the Ashby goal.
Throughout the whole of the first half Jamie Foster, Toby Williams and Robyn Welch linked well together and Barton were unlucky not to score, with attempts on goal by Welch, Church and Bloomfield.
The half time talk was to keep playing the way of the first half and keep the width. These instructions were followed to the letter and this time it was Cooke and Woolley that linked with Foster to split the Ashby midfield and feed the ball to the Barton attack. A fine individual run by Dave Hawksworth should have seen the first goal for Barton but the pas was just too far away from Bloomfield. With just 11 players and no subs the Barton team started to flag a little towards the end of the 2nd half and this allowed Ashby to get to the Barton Goal keeper Daniel Bond who having made his first save of the game was then suddenly called on three times in quick succession.
Barton rallied round and pushed for a clean sheet, getting the ball away from the defence with Cooke and Welch linking well down the left and Bond and Williams linking with Bloomfield down the right, but it was determination from midfielders Foster and Hawksworth that saw Welch released to cross the ball for Church to attempt a shot. Bloomfield realised that the ball was going wide and steeped in to calmly place the ball into the net to ensure Barton took the points. Ashby could not find the strength to get a goal back at this late stage of the game.
The Prince and Bates Opticians player of the match could have been any one of the team this week:
Foster and Hawksworth for a fine holding role in the middle of the pitch, Hawksworth Junior, Church or Cooke for the work put in up and down the pitch. Possibly Nathan Bond for his tackling – didn’t miss one all game. Then there was Daniel Bond for making three vital saves to keep a clean sheet or Bloomfield for scoring the winning goal. Welch had a great game taking players on and passing to open up the game.
However for a fine performance throughout the game the Prince and Bates Opticians player of the match goes to Tom Woolley and Toby Williams.

Ashby Badgers 0 v 1 Barton Badgers