Well, what a good feeling!! Although we made hard work of it in the second half, I felt we thoroughly deserved the win yesterday against a Row side that wanted to pass the ball all over the place but lacked a bit of bite.

First twenty was all us; we were strong at the back with Jim marshalling the rest of us imperiously (like an Old Alan Hansen), Parker and his big brother Alan dominating midfield, Barnes and James doing plenty of damage out wide and both our target-men (!!) proving a handful for the Row backline. A good finish from Barnes at the second attempt was the least we deserved on 20 minutes.

They got back into the game as the half went on but only really created one good chance when toberone-head miscued from a few yards out, with the rest of their pressure resulting in long shots that never troubled Cat.

I thought we were pretty comfortable at the beginning of the second half, and when Barnes doubled the lead on the hour from close range, we were in total control. Obviously from there we got a bit sloppy and let them back into it- to me this all begun when Jim got injured and we had to re-shuffle; they went a bit route one and we lost our control a little bit. Their first was just a lump forward and good finish, and I am pretty sure their equaliser was a cross, but we were rocking and could easily have folded.

What I was most pleased about yesterday was the attitude everyone showed, whether it was being a sub, or subbed, but most of all I was delighted with how we reacted to throwing away our two goal lead. Instead of heads going down and bitching, we re-grouped, got on with it and won the game through a great cross from Barnes and a classic Harman header with 10 to go. We then worked hard to see the game out with only one or two scares, and could easily have scored more ourselves. (Ritchies shot from a corner will long stay in the memory- it would have hit Parker on the corner flag had it not run out of gas).

Special mention to Alan L for a very solid debut and to Pete for a great first game of the season. Depressingly, however, I can’t look beyond Barnes for another MOM performance, with two goals and an assist, as well as some great tracking back.