Great teamwork gives Badgers a fine win

A positive pre game team talk from Steve Berry concentrated on strong accurate passing and not giving the ball away and from the starting whistle that was exactly what the team of youngsters worked on.

Alex Gibson was soon combining well with Harrison Collins to drive forward and get into the North Stafford D and it was from one of these attacks that Gibson scored the first goal. North Staffs looked shaky as they pushed back and again Gibson was found hunting down the ball, this time accompanied by Tom Church and Dominic Sturman. Finally they were rewarded and Church scored the second Barton goal.

This time North Staffs seemed to take charge of the game as they pushed back and the attacking trio of girls down the North Staffs right took the ball into the final third of the pitch only to be thwarted by excellent play by Nathan Bond in defence and Brother Daniel Bond in goal. Again Barton pushed forward but solid tackling in defence soon gave the ball back to the North Staffs midfield to feed the ball up field again. Barton settled back into the game and good attacking play from Reece Bloomfield, Gibson and Church produced a series of Penalty corners for Barton allowing Gibson to score his second goal from an excellent strike at goal.

The Barton half time team talk again focused on accurate passing and team play and with this in mind Barton went straight on the attack with good effect – this time Reece Bloomfield being the goal scorer. North Staffs can be proud of their efforts and not being a team to give up they attacked well, again putting the Barton defence under pressure and being unlucky not to score when the ball was firmly passed across the D for the centre forward to strike at goal, the ball beating the stranded Baton keeper but somehow not crossing the goal line before being pushed away by Church.

A change of formation saw Declan Orpwood and Nathan Bond going into attack, with Sturman and Church dropping comfortably into defence. Fine attacking play down the right wing by Sam Berry provided the ball for Church to score his second goal even though he was now in defence! North Staffs grew stronger as they settled into the final quarter of the game but could not find a way through the defence of Collins, Church, Bond and Sturman. Final score Barton 5 North Staffs 0.

Prince and Bates man of the match goes jointly to Tom Church and Alex Gibson.

Next week Barton Badgers travel to play Buxton Badgers.