Barnton 2 Linotype 0

Mid Cheshire Division One

Saturday, March 10

IT'S the time of year when Barnton just get on with the job of picking up the points, hence a routine victory over Linotype on Saturday.

It was a good first five minutes and last five minutes of the first half for them, but these brief spells didn't give them enough time to find their feet in a frustrating first half.

Still, there could have been a half-time lead for Barnton had it not been for Nick Vernon in the visiting goal, who made saves from Richie Milne and David Dale to preserve the goalless scoreline.

But it only took nine minutes of the second half for Barnton to break the deadlock thanks to the invention of Mark Tomlinson.

The midfield man clipped the ball forward over the defence and raced on to it himself before being tackled from behind for a penalty. Stuart Fraser stepped up to drill in the kick.

Linotype were showing little attacking guile and it was only going to take another goal for the game to be killed off, arriving in the 62nd minute.

David Dale was the scorer with a header from Milne's free-kick, which Vernon got a hand to only to help it into the roof of the net.

But Lino's keeper was easily their best player and he underlined this by making further saves from Adam Foy, Tomlinson, Majic Starchievski and Les Miranda to keep the score down to two.

At least Barnton managed to produce a second half performance which will give them encouragement for their double header with Middlewich Town in the coming week.

They host Middlewich in the semi-final of the Mid Cheshire District Cup on Saturday, a repeat of last year's final (3pm).

That match, which Barnton won 3-1, was played at the Drill Field, which will also be the venue when the two sides meet again a week on Thursday in the Mid Cheshire Senior Cup quarter-final.

Barnton: Fortune, Starchievski, Fraser, Jones, Nelson (Killey 73), Gee, Milne (Langey 86), Dale, Foy, Brodigan (Miranda 57), Tomlinson.