Badgers................5

Brigg....................0

One of the pleasures of suporting the Badgers is that you know that the raw skills, naivete and innocence shown in September will have been nurtured throughout the season and that by the time March arrives the colts will put

on a display that mesmerises the opposition.

On Saturday, Brigg were the unfortunate visitors who suffered the Badgers in full flow. A scrappy first-half was lit up when Simon Forbes delivered a perfect reverse stick cross from the left which left Peter Grummitt the simplest of tap ins.

The second half was a different story as the Badgers clicked into top gear and served up an impressive performance which warmed the hearts of the knowledgeable crowd.

Their defence was rock steady under the watchful eye of the paternalistic Alan Marr and the Booth's Man-of-the-Match John Pawson, who comfortably absorbed all that Brigg could throw at them.

Pawson capped an impeccable display by playing an astute pass out of defence to William Musgrave whose 50 yard pass released James Metcalfe who hoodwinked the 'keeper and scored his first goal for the club. Many more will follow.

The compliment was returned minutes later as Metcalfe found Musgrave in space and a clevery weighted shot again defeated the Brigg 'keeper.

Better was to follow as Musgrave seized on a Borrett pass to undercut the ball into the net from the edge of the circle.

The final goal was perhaps the best of the lot as a flowing seven man move allowed Grummitt to slot home the fifth and final nail in the Brigg coffin.

Ben Rhydding Vlll's....4

Adel Vl's......................3

The penultimate league match of the season for Ben Rhydding Eighths was a return to form seldom seen recently. The team, bolstered by old boys Simon Mountsey and Rob Shelton, assumed a more confident air aided by silky skills of Philip Blackburn, on loan from Ben Rhydding fifths in mid field.

The game was dictated from the off by a proficient Adel attack and a defence which was ripe for exploitation.

Shelton was the first to take advantage of this, scoring a scrambled goal after the first five minutes.

Following this, both teams settled to a more studied pace with the initiative being seized by the Ben Rhydding mid field.

This eventually allowed Shelton the opportunity to fire a hard, direct shot into the back of Adel's net exploiting the narrowest of gaps.

In the second half Adel played more expansively and put Ben Rhydding under considerable pressure.

Andrew Funnell in goal, together with some excellent covering work by Mountsey, absorbed most of the pressure and allowed a Joel Purfit goal against the run of play.

Goals came thick and fast after this but fortunately another excellent goal from Martin Higgit meant that the eighths were able to hang on to a well fought victory

The team's position in the League now hinges on the final game at Bradford on Saturday.

On this performance the eighths surely deserve to stay up.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.