Mens 1XI add another fine away victory

Barton retained their hold on 2nd place in Midlands One with a well-deserved victory away vs Old Halesonians.

Skipper Adam Foster was unavailable due to a knock to the head picked up the previous week so this afforded Joe Flavill the chance to make his 1st team debut. Goalkeeper Mike Parr was also unavailable so Nick Tomlinson stepped into the Barton goal.

In spite of some positional re-shuffling Barton made a solid start to the game, moving the ball round well and creating space in the final third. At the other end Barton were holding reasonably tight in defence and were relatively untroubled by an opposition forward line lacking in skill and ambition. Barton eventually took the lead 15 minutes in through Ash Parr. Parr showed great persistence and tenacity in closing down the opposition defence and won back possession just outside the attacking 25. He then proceeded to embark on a direct attacking run towards the D and beat the 2 defenders in front of him. Left with just the goalkeeper to beat Parr showed a calm head to apply a fine undercut finish high into the net over the prone keeper. Barton soon doubled their lead through debutant Flavill. Roger Craig attacked well down the right wing and fed the ball into Will Rawbon. Rawbon attacked the D before firing in a cross which was deftly turned in by Flavill for a goal on debut. Old Halesonians used this as a trigger to attack themselves and Tomlinson had to produce a string of fine saves before the break along with defender Jamie Sheriff making a goal-line clearance to preserve Barton's 2 goal advantage going into the interval.

Tate message from coach Nigel Taylor was to retain the discipline when out of possession and then use the midfield to dictate the tempo of the game as much as possible.

The message was clearly taken on board as Barton turned in a fine 2nd half display to secure the 3 points. Although only adding 1 additional goal in the second half Barton showed defensive assuredness and a mature approach to closing the game out. 10 minutes into the 2nd half Barton went 3-0 up with Parr doubling his tally for the afternoon. Sheriff put in a fine tackle at left back to win back possession and fed the ball to John Hickman. Hickman, who had been having a fine game in the Barton midfield, played a superb aerial ball down the line to a leading Craig Tilke. Tilke beat the man in front of him before crossing the ball into the D whereby Parr got across his man to turn the ball past the keeper. Barton's lead was almost 4 as Ben Elson went close from a penalty corner and was then denied a goal as the umpire failed to play advantage. At the other end Old Halesonians grabbed a consolation goal from a penalty corner but any further attempts on the Barton goal were either thwarted by the defence, marshalled by skipper for the day Jacob Foster, or by more saves from the superb Tomlinson.

Barton closed out the game in a disciplined fashion to finish deserved 3-1 winners. The win sees them retain 2nd place and next week are on the road again, this time away vs Northampton Saints.