Old Meadonians 3 Bealonians 5

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Old Meadonians 3 Bealonians 5

Late gifts end hope of great escape for Meads

Amateur Football Combination Premier Division

Old Meadonians continued their brief but dangerous flirtation with disaster by welcoming Bealonians with open arms and giving their unassuming visitors the freedom of Riverside Lands for a large chunk of Saturday afternoon.

Meads’ rocky defence has now leaked eleven goals in three games and, with two first choice defenders unlikely to be fully fit for five weeks and a third set to serve similar but draconian time at the league’s pleasure, coaches Paul Rumley and Rory Vermeulen have a task on hand to instil stability, restore confidence and steady the ship.

Meads’ usual method of taking pressure off their defence, to register in the scorebook has fallen foul of a touch too much profligacy up front which meant that they went in at half time facing a daunting three goal deficit while spurning chances to be four three down.

An infusion of pace and guile with the introduction of Ed Glover, Peter Eguae and Jack Costello saw the hosts claw back two goals within twenty minutes of the restart as first defender Adam Goode headed in Glover’s cross and then Glover weighed in with a sweet half-volley from twenty yards to find the corner of the net.

When, with fifteen minutes to go, Costello rattled the equaliser in off the under-side of the bar from a twenty-five yard free-kick, the odds were heavily in favour of Meads completing their great escape with a fourth. However, that was not to be as a final Meads’ relapse saw Beals redress the balance with two late gifts, the last from a muddle culminating in an own goal. Coach Rory Vermeulen, while not belittling the task in hand, took heart from Meads’ ability to make a fighting come back from almost beyond recall and not to cave in which is more than can be said for one professional club.

Team: Robinson, Goode, N. Jones, McCombe, Quinn, (Glover), M. Phillips, Gerrish, Shea, (Costello), Mantel, Richards, (Eguae), C. Jones.

October 5, 2011