This week The Archers entertained last year’s promotion rivals East Court, who were the only unbeaten team in the league. Unfortunately it has been a similar story for Fletching this year, as they were down to the bare bones again as ‘Sheepy’ Cork was away for the weekend and Holford was still out with a knee injury, meaning Steve Barbe’s younger brother Marcus made his first team debut starting on the bench alongside Fletching legend Pat ‘Minty’ Philips, who was drafted in at short notice to help his former club out. There was a welcome return for Paul Rider who went into the middle alongside Wolvey, whilst a reshuffle saw Hyland and a start for Powell on the wings with Duff and Bradford dropping into defence.

The Archers knew it would take a big effort to come away with the three points and got to work straight away hustling the Court players when in possession. It was a tight game but Court blew the chance to take an early lead when the visiting player blazed over when it seemed easier to score. This was a wake up call for the hosts and they started to make some inroads themselves, Burchett and Lucey looking to get fed in behind by Wolvey and Rider but they came up against a stubborn defence. The visitors were to take the lead in freak circumstances. From a corner the ball was fired towards goal only for Wolvey to make a brave block, but it then rebounded off the opposing player and looped towards goal, when Neil ‘Nails’ inadvertently flicked it into the top corner. The Archers responded well however and equalised before half time as a lovely passing move put Burchett clear and he did enough to slip it past the keeper.

Fletching knew they would have to come out of the blocks quickly in the second period as the boggy pitch was beginning to take its toll and the hosts started well in the opening five minutes. Some neat football resulted with Hyland putting a dangerous ball into the box only for it to miss the front pairing by a matter of inches. However from the home attack East Court went up the other end and took the lead from some quick direct football, as from a cross the ball was put into the corner of the net. From this Fletching heads seemed to drop, and it went from bad to worse when goalscorer Burchett had to go off injured. The two substitutes were introduced with Minty going in goal, and despite the best efforts of Barbe the younger and Mark Dann who had gone up front as a target man, there was no way back for The Archers. Court soon added a third after some poor defending, and the same could be said for the visitor’s fourth as a driving run into the box from Denyer saw his shot fired into the bottom corner. Final score was a tough 4-1 defeat.

View From The Dancefloor with Billy Elliot (a.k.a Chris Hyland)

Well the Jekyll and Hyde act was once again on show at The Recreation Ground as Fletching put in a real up and down performance. In the first half the lads battled really well, kept their shape and showed East Court they would have to work very hard to get anything from the game. However, in the second period we were a completely different team, with a lot of moaning going on rather than any encouragement. I think the clear difference between the teams was fitness, as we simply could not keep up the pressure we managed to sustain on them in the first forty-five. Hopefully we can address this as we get more games under our belt because if we don’t we are in real danger of being involved in a relegation dogfight.

Team: M Dann, Duff, Funnell, Bradford, S.Barbe, Powell (M.Barbe), Wolvey, Rider, Hyland, Lucey, Burchett (Philips)