A chilly Friday night at the Kennel saw in-form Barkerettes (sixth) host Berwick (eighth). The hosts were going for a third win in a row, had a full bench, and Berwick had half their team out. What could go wrong? Clue – in 20 previous meetings, Barkers had won only twice.
The first chance fell to Berwick on seven minutes, but a shot from the edge of the box went well wide. Within a minute, though, their next attack saw a loose ball fall to Olivia Mirauta, who hit a low shot through a crowd of players to find the net for 1-0 Berwick.
This was an open game and on 23 minutes, Emily Stokes hit a cross from the right to the far post, but it didn’t quite sit up for our forward and it was headed over.
Just after the half hour, Charlotte Martin played the ball over the top for Alizah Jones to chase on the right. She slipped the ball inside for Stokes, who hit a low shot into the net for her first goal of the season and the equaliser at 1-1.
Three minutes later, Barkers conceded a free-kick just outside the box, but Ella Tantari’s kick was comfortably held by keeper Ash Fraraccio. Barkers went straight back upfield and a great cross from the right by Jones was headed narrowly wide at the near post. Half-time 1-1, with Barkers looking below par and allowing Berwick to win too many contested balls.
The Berwick coach didn’t bother with a half-time team talk. He just asked the players to read a couple of chapters of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. They were inspired by the notion of the Knight Bus, so they rigged up their own version (almost the same colour too) and parked it in front of their goal for 45 minutes.
Three minutes into the second half, Barkers had a free kick about 30 yards out. Kelly Butera had a crack but the ball sailed over. Then Stokes attacked down the right but overran the ball.
A rare Berwick attack on 52 minutes saw Nadine Jambo overlap on the right and cut inside, but her shot was blocked.
For most of the last half hour, 21 of the 22 players were in the Berwick half – Fraraccio watched from afar as Barkers pinned Berwick back. A close-range shot from Martin took a deflection but the keeper still got to it. Laelah Gundry then beat her marker before hitting the ball across the face of the Berwick goal. Butera hit another free kick over, and Alysha Barrueto stormed through the defence but shot at the keeper. You get the picture – Full-time 1-1.
This result felt like two points dropped for Barkers. If the whole Berwick team was suddenly available to Barkers coach Mark Brown, only two would be worth a place in the Barkers side (Jambo and Nargis Naderi). The Berwick coach was thrilled at winning a point.
For Barkers, Kaity Farrance won absolutely everything in the air and Barkers created numerous chances. Sometimes, though, that’s not enough, and perversely, that’s why we keep watching. Next Sunday they take on Endeavour at Reema Reserve – they’ll probably take them to the cleaners.
