Well, that was quite a way to break the scoring drought !
For 30 minutes last Saturday everything seemed to be steady, under control and looking promising. No sooner had I turned to a mate and said ‘You know, we could win this one ‘ we were 2 down in one minute and looking pretty bedraggled in the heaviest of rainfall. The rain seemed to escalate in tandem with Stanway's goalscoring, who began to spray the ball around with not a little swagger and soon added a third, leaving a dejected Crofters to seek solace in the Clubhouse bar or with a of tea, pretty much in silence. It was looking that bad.

But isn’t Football an amazing game? Five minutes after the interval Jeremy Ebebele scored a corker of a goal and suddenly, Sawbo's forwards looked like men with a weight lifted from their shoulders!
Stanway Rover's Henry Barley dived to force home a far post header to restore Stanway’s three goal cushion, but first Ibrahim Barrie then Jaydon Charles netted and pulled it to 3-4.

Stanway scored again, but so did Sawbo 4 - 5 and the remaining faithful, now back in relative sunshine on the terrace, were ecstatic.

90 mins and Sawbo pressed - to be more accurate, they threw the proverbial kitchen sink at Stanway to find an equaliser. Always a risky gambit , but only 5 minutes at best to be added and Stanway held their nerve, set up for balls over and through our reduced lines of cover and struck twice.

I have seen some comment that to let in those last two Stanway goals and concede a total of 7 is reckless, to those I would point out that you can’t shut up shop and defend a draw that you haven’t got yet !! Losing 4-5 with 90 mins already on the clock I love to see the team busting a gut for a goal.

Any positives? Well, we broke the scoring duck, never a bad thing. Plusses for Sawbo were that the three subs in the second half all looked to be very useful and their inclusion undoubtedly sparked some of the improved movement, allowing centre-forward Jaydon Charles some space at last to notch a brace of goals.
Was it just a freak game? I don't know, that cannot be dismissed - both sides exhibited flaws when not in possession and back pedalling.

Friendly result:
Sawbo 3 BS Swifts 1
A very useful friendly match to bed in some new players and Sawbo did look much happier to be in front of their opponents goal than they have of late. The match was certainly, shall we say, 'contested' more keenly than any training session would be, so very useful indeed.

FC Clacton to come on Saturday, second bottom, one more point than us. That is a big match !