Although at Uni all day I 'raced' home, put the Breakers shirt and cap on, and with Owen & Lowenna headed out via the Freeway and Cowpastures Rd arriving just as the game was to kick off. A quick mobile call and the Breakers fans were located in the new eastern stand just near the commentary box. The skies were by now black, with lightning in the distance. Threatening too was wether Marconi were hungry for that top 6 spot and could Newcastle pull off their first win at Bossley Park.
Kick off and Marconi on the attack so we started up a chant to lift the lads (with 3 ex Marconi players on the park), and down came the rain. So did 3 well known Spirit fans who joined in and were soon mixing in some songs of their own. The Breakers only had Buonavoglia up front but were pushing up from midfield and some nice moves indicated the possibilities. The defence had a few wobblies but held and with Andy Roberts settling into marking Maloney a move started with Greg Owens having to back track in the midfield and spying Rab Shannon's signal squared it into space and Rab ghosted up the right wing and hit an early curling early ball across the edge of the penalty area - to be met by a 'world-class' overhead scissor kick from Tom Haythornthwaite which wacked into the corner of the goal. 0-1 Delerium from the 70 or so Newcastle fans. As the rain poured down Marconi slowly but surely got on top in the midfield despite Owen's good effort and by half-time the talk was can we hang on?
The second half saw Marconi throw more forward but the wall stood firm although Catlin was forced to take a few balls which had danger writen on them Marconi was forced to strike from way out and waywardly too. The Breakers didn't only sit behind the ball, they made several attacks with Buonovaglia spearheading but no real pressure was placed on the keeper. Pouring rain did not deter the small Rowdie contingent who continued supporting right up the the final whistle, earning a joyous recognition from the players. Marconi certainly had more of the game, but the Breakers (with ex Marconi coach Lee Sterrey at the helm) had their match and the result was therefore a fair one, especially as Mark Shield had a fairly one-eyed view of the tackles.
Best for NB: Catlin, Pryce, Shannon - but they all deserve praise (despite those wobbles early on).
Alas the YL lost. 1-3 I think. Ferguson sent off early.