Barton Town Reserves 0-1 Beverley Town
A trip to the south bank of the Humber brought a hard earned 3 points for Beverley with one of their toughest tests of the season against a strong Barton Town Reserves at the Easy Buy Stadium.
From the off, the quality of both sides was plain to see. A number of chances were created at either end of the pitch, but no clear cut shots were taken on goal. This built up to Will Waudby collecting the ball on the left wing, from a throw in from Dean Larvin, cutting past Barton’s fullback to put a cross into the far post. The ball finds the head of Olly Baldwin, after a great leap from the winger, heading it into the the back of the net to open the scoring in the third minute for the away side.
End to end is the best description of this game, even in the early minutes. Barton pushed forward in the first 10 minutes, looking for an equaliser, their front three able to get shots on goal but Bedford in the Beverley defence pulled off some great blocks to keep any shots challenging Hitchcock in the net. The ball would find itself on the counter from these attacks, Bowes picking the ball up 1 on 1 with the Barton keeper, before being brought down but the referee waved away any calls for a foul.
Bowes would find himself another chance from a Waudby cross. The forward met the ball at the farpost but a fantastic save stops Beverley from doubling their lead.
The home side pushed against these attacks, beginning a spell of dominance winning the ball on the wings and trying to pass across goal for an open goal to shoot in but Hitchcock and the defenders in front of him do well to prevent the crosses reaching any Barton forwards into the box, hitting the balls out to the wings to try and put up their own counter attack.
Jason Crisp swung in a corner that met the head of a Beverley player but a Barton player on the line kept the deficit to 1. The frustration was starting to set in for both sides near the end of the first half as both sides were missing important chances.
Beverley started the second half as they did the first, on the front foot. Baldwin dribbling down to the byline to cross the ball across to Will Waudby on the opposite side, his stretched leg meets the ball but it rattles the crossbar. Both teams continued to push for goals. The side that put 11 past Hornsea at the weekend were struggling with their ability to be clinical.
The quality of the defensive effort on show by either side was best represented around the 60th minute, when Barton went through on goal down the left hand side before Zak Oakshott could slide in for a perfectly timed tackle to let it go out for a throw in.
Shots for either side were failing to meet the target as the game went on. Charlie Dunkerley, coming on for Crisp, showed off his skill to get into some great positions to get shots off but unluckily his efforts were going wide of the target. Barton would feel the same frustration as a number of corners for the home side were headed over the bar.
The final whistle would blow though with Beverley just edging this nervy even affair . Barton showed the hard work and discipline to make this a very entertaining game despite a low scoreline. Beverley take a break this weekend, knowing that they’ll still be top without playing a game, with no fixture until next Wednesday when Town host Reckitts in a 18:30 kick off at Norwood.
.Beverley Line Up: James Hitchcock, Zak Oakshott, Ryan Holmes, Kurt Bedford, Dean Larvin, Danny Norton, Jason Crisp (Charlie Dunkerley), Michael O Connell (Tom Waudby), Olly Baldwin (Joe Norton), Adam Bowes, Will Waudby
Match report from Riley Sommerville
