Barnton 2 Middlewich Town 2

Green Mid-Cheshire One

MIDDLEWICH came away from Townfields Lane with a point, but should have taken all three, even though they were reduced to nine men for the last 20 minutes of the game.

It was Barnton who started the game the better side, and were looking for revenge on their neighbours after being beated at Seddon Street a month ago.

Good inter-play by Fraser and Brodigan brought a good stop from the Town keeper, Karl Walton.

Captain Rob Corcoran was in outstanding form alongside his partner Brian Nicholson, ably assisted by full backs Ian Tier and Ben Barnard.

At the other end, Jason Jones should have scored with a header after a tremendous cross from Barnard, but a good save by Derrick Fortune denied the big striker.

In an even first half, both teams were satisfied with their performance, good passing and movement, but there was little goal area activity, with both keepers only having to make a save each.

But the second half started with a bang. Middlewich kicked off and Paul Bennett spread the ball wide for Barnard, who again whipped in an excellent cross. This time Jones controlled, turned two defenders and side-footed the ball home past Fortune.

Barnton re-started and Tomlinson played the ball forward and Brodigan took control, but what looked like a tame tackle by Tier, wasn't seen like that by the referee, who awarded Barnton a free kick which Brodigan despatched into the corner past Walton.

In a crazy 10 minutes, Middlewich took the lead again, Whitehurst skipping past Lambert and finding Jones, who again used his pace to leave Barnton defenders standing.

He was brought down for a penalty by namesake Mark Jones. Corcoran stepped up and sent Fortune the wrong way to put Town 2-1 up.

The game settled down for a period, but with 25 minutes remaining Ian Tier was sent off for his second bookable offence, and this inspired Barnton to push forward.

Middlewich stayed resilient, so much so that manager Dave Twite went to increase their lead by replacing midfielders Gareth Langley and Eddie Whitehurst with strikers Les Miranda and Chris Melia.

This nearly paid off when Miranda set up Jones who rounded Fortune, but agonisingly saw his shot hit the post and go out for a goal kick.

Barnton launched another attack and good touches between Astbury and Tomlinson led to Milne shooting at goal. It was charged down by Lewis, but the referee adjudged he did it with his hand.

Up stepped Milne to convert the spot-kick and Lewis made his way to the dressing room after being shown the red card.

Middlewich, down to nine men, put up a brave fight for the last 20 minutes, showing great character against the champions, and again Corcoran marshalled his team to keep out Barnton's threat.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.