The Northolme, Gainsborough
Gainsborough Trinity (1) 1 (Stamp)
Eastwood Town (1) 4 (Meikle, Holland, Holmes, Bacon pen)
Admission £10. Programme £2
Attendance 551
Left click on match photos for enlarged images.An excellent game of football at the Northolme in the Blue Square North today.
Obviously Brian Little, Trinity's 'coup signing' new manager has got a lot of work to do when he takes over the reigns next week. Yet until the 35th minute if you'd have told me one of these teams was going to take all three points with a convincing 4-1 win, I would've backed Trinity.
Gainsborough were a goal in front at one point and looking good, but once Eastwood pulled level and stole the initiative they were rampant and the home side caved in.
Gainsborough Trinity tore into the (original and best Nottinghamshire) Badgers from the off and could already have been two in front when Lewis McMahon crossed for Darryn Stamp to head the home side in front on twelve minutes.
It was the very least they deserved and at that stage it looked like a home banker.
Eastwood just about managed to keep the deficit down to a single with an 'all hands to the pumps' rearguard action, but the Blues were looking on top of their game and destined for a win.
Somebody in this picture and me learnt to drink together during our teenage years, we were rubbish at it, but became quite accomplished in the art of quaffing as we got older.The venue for those escapades was the back room of the Half Moon in Retford market square, that Hibs supporting buffoon Fish wrote a somewhat derogatory song about that pub that he recorded with his group Marillion, called 'Market Square Heroes'. I only ever saw him in their once and he definitely wasn't wearing his Hibs colours then. It was a real dump of a Bikers pub back in the day. That Hibee poser was like a fish out of water in 'Mad Jacks'.
Here he (my pal Lee not Fish) joins his mates in a crafty smoke (some old habits never die, eh!?), nervously ruing the host a chances Trinity created but wasted in the first 35 minutes that would and should have killed the game off ... and hoping they won't regret them later on.
Ah, the 'joys' of writing with the benefit of hindsight ;-)
Trinity TV.On 35 minutes, against the run of play, Eastwood found themselves in the Gainsborough penalty area in a rare foray forward.
Trinity duly snubbed out the attack and cleared the ball up field. But it only went as far as Martin Foster who drilled a well timed and perfectly weighted ball forward to Lindon Meikle on the edge of the box. Meikle sublimely beat his marker Jake Picton and swerved home as sweet a goal as I'm likely to see all season.
"One spark o' magic!" offered a happy smiling Eastwood fan as he celebrated his sides turning point. "We've not been in it 'til that" he added. 100% correct on both counts.
I hope 'Trinity TV' post the moment on their website or YouTube in due course.
Trinity came out for the second half and tried to pick up where they had left off.Mark Hume had to clear the ball off the line for the visitors straight from the restart and then Nathan Peat struck a free kick inches wide of the upright as Gainsborough tried to restore their lead.
But from that moment onwards, the tide turned and Eastwood were all over their hosts like a rash.
Trinity spent the rest of the game chasing shadows as the Badgers went from strength to strength and dismantled them.
Emaka Nwadike put the ball in Gainsborough's net, it was disallowed. But on 65 minutes Danny Holland got on the end of a flick on from a corner and it was time for Blues fans of a nervous disposition to look away.
Eastwood were in front and never looked back.
The only surprising aspect of the game from that point onwards was that Eastwood didn't increase their lead until the 83rd minute. Meikle cleverly found the Badgers substitute Knox who had just come on inside the box and he unleashed a thundering shot. Phil Barnes managed to save it, but Ian Holmes was on hand to head home the equaliser. 1-3.
A real poachers goal.
Peter Knox shoots, Barnes has it covered, but Holmes is lurking to head home the rebound, 1-3In the very last minute a Trinity defender shoved Eastwood's other sub David Brown in the back and to the ground as he raced clear into the box.
"A dodgy penalty" moaned someone on the Gainsborough fans forum. "As blatant a penalty as you'll ever see" said the bloke stood with me in line with the incident.
The latter, the linesman and the referee all got it completely right ... as did Brown from the resultant spot kick.
Eastwood's last minute penalty from David Brown bulges the net, 1-4Brian Little's first job as Gainsborough's newly appointed manager is to get them to play for the whole ninety minutes. They looked very capable for spells, especially during the first half, but Eastwood Town wanted it more here this afternoon and thoroughly deserved the result.
