Just 9 minutes in to the game, Tom cleared a ball from the left hand side half way line which fell inside the box, a Corby player cleared the ball in turn but only as far as Ryan Keightley who took a good strike and placed it past the keeper, 1 – 0 Barton and we got to the see the long awaited revealing of the Christmas underarmour. About 5 minutes later , the ball was played up the left hand side of the field to Keets feet and although being chased by 2 Corby players descended towards goal, having a shot on target only the Corby Keeper managed to deflect it back out of the goal. Keets again with the ball decided to play it back across to Nathan on the right had side of the box and Nathan controlled and scored. 2 – 0 to Barton.

Corby however decided to put some pressure on Earls Barton and our game got a bit sloppy at times. Rhys pulled off two great saves to deny Corby a goal until Corby managed to clear a ball from in their box out to the half way line with their player running on to it, the barton boys stopped and called for offside – but the flag stayed down and there was too much of a gap to make up – Rhys came out to close him down but there was so much space, it was inevitable that the Corby player was going to score. 2 - 1.

Another good save pulled off by Rhys and a few more chances for us to score was the tone of the first half. Just on the brink of half time, Antonio made one of his usual excellent challenges but the referee thought that he had caught the Corby player and Antonio received his first ever yellow card. Considering how many “perfect challenges” he makes that’s a good ratio.

Within two minutes of the second half a ball played in from the left hand side reached Nathan unmarked only for him to head it over the crossbar (unlucky Nath – although it wasn’t what his dad was saying) – ooh’s and aah’s from the crowd set the scene for the next 10 minutes then another break from Corby allowed them to bring the score back to 2 - 2.

Barton had several corners and Addis had a free kick just outside the box but it wasn’t going to be our day and it was by now that you noticed us give up a bit, probably because of lack of energy. Corby took advantage of this and with their heads up coming back from 2 nil down, pressed until finally getting their reward in scoring their 3rd goal.

It was very evident that we hadn’t had any training for a few weeks due to the bad weather – but there isn’t much that anyone can do about that. Perhaps playing a few out of position wasn’t the right decision on my part but it’s too late now to change the result. So we have to look ahead to the next game and be confident that we can win.

A good performance again from Rhys. Keets & Addis had good games, but Man of The Match this week goes to Antonio Graziano, for most definitely stopping some goal scoring opportunities today with his challenges.