Closer.
After this performance you get the feeling that the first win isn’t that far away. A solitary penalty was all that divided the two teams, coming on the 20th minute.
We had plenty of chances, the best of which came in an energetic opening ten minutes from us.
Paul Sunderland
With barely a minute on the clock Brian Matthews - with his first start since signing for us over the summer - found himself in space in the area only to volley his effort over the bar.
He was in again three minutes later, robbing the keeper but finding the angle too tight for him to do anything with the ball.
Ryan Shenton then had a glorious chance another two minutes later, latching onto a Pat Davin through ball on the right and seeing his fierce drive at the near post beaten away by the keeper.
Danny Whiting then had to foil a decent Barnton chance on 11 minutes, rushing out to swipe the ball away from the no11’s feet after it looked as though he was going to round Danny before Pat Davin had a chance for himself, heading over a Hopkins cross on 18 minutes.
Another Hopkins cross caused trouble on the stroke of half-time as he scuttled one across the face of the Barnton goal but there wasn’t a Cheadle limb on the end of it to turn it home.
A similar situation occurred on 50 minutes when Pat Davin couldn’t stretch his long limbs enough to get on the end of a Brian Matthews cross and could only poke it wide.
Barnton almost stole a 2-0 lead just after the hour mark when a cross from the left was met by a stooping header by the unmarked no11 which thankfully drifted wide.
Our Ollie throwing some shapes
On the 72nd minute Brian Matthews took aim from range with the parried shot then met by Pat Davin who fired it goalwards only for the keeper to have made a recovery and palm it away.
Pat then actually had the ball in the net five minutes later but was deemed to have been offside when he bundled home an Ollie Hatfield-Banton cross home from close range.
We knew it probably wasn’t going to be our night on 81 minutes when substitute Jake Phelan put the afterburners on down the right to beat the onrushing keeper to the ball and stab it past him; it was surely going to roll in but for a last-gasp clearance.
Two minutes later Yannick Machado Le Gal sent a lovely cross in from the right that looked set for Ashley Curran to volley home at the far post but he sent it skywards.
This run will come to an end at some point, surely. We came ridiculously close tonight and should have come away with something. Onto the visit of Wythenshawe Town on Bank Holiday Monday….
TEAM: Whiting, Johnson, Hatfield-Banton, Lunt, Gaskin, Sunderland (Naughton), Curran, Shenton, Matthews (Phelan), Davin, Hopkins (Machado Le Gal). SUBS: Clarke, Piggott (gk), Machado Le Gal, Naughton, Phelan.