By Kenny Duncan

The 1sts needed to crank it up a notch after last week's poor showing, in order to keep hopes alive of a top 3 finish. The day started badly, with 2 call-offs - Alex (sick), Man of the Match for the last 3 weeks, and Gonzo (working). Matters worsened with the list of walking wounded - Karl (knee), Antonio (knee), Dean (psychological), Juri (head shoulders knees and toes, and most bits inbetween). But given the numbers situation, all but Antonio had to play the whole match.

To the game itself: the day's opponents, Barca Jette started brightly. The grumpiest team in the league appeared to be in better spirits than last time we played them, and seemed fitter and sharper throughout. However, the BUFC boys brought their usual physicality to the party, with the backbone of Lee, Rehan and Scott in robust form.

First blood went to Barca midway through the first half when some neat play put their striker through on Dave one-on-one. 0-1 at half time, but BUFC were very much still in the game. Barca had shown themselves to be a little nervous at the back, and the BUFC strikers could smell their fear. Their keeper in particular - a man you wouldn't trust with your pint - seemed rather spilly.

Under constant pressure from the Barca attackers, Dean was a rock in his unfamiliar left-back role; his colleague on the other side, Karl was no less effective. In front of him, James patrolled the right side of midfield with aplomb. In our counter-attacks, Juri was creative and was particularly unlucky to be incorrectly judged offside in the 2nd half.

In fact, our breakthrough came in the 2nd half when Miguel and Scott lined up a free-kick on the left corner of Barca's area. Miguel launched a feisty cross-cum-shot, which their keeper predictably spilled. Thomas was on him in a flash but the keeper managed to block, if only temporarily, as Kenny was also there, leaping like a fish supper at the near post to power the header home, 1-1.

The BUFC maintained an impressive workrate throughout the 2nd half, none more so than Thomas, who worked the left wing tirelessly, and harangued his man incessantly. With 15 mins left, our efforts were rewarded when Kenny and Scott worked a 1-2 on the halfway line, and then it was a case of pinning the ears back and heading for goal. Kenny's final ball took a slight deflection off their defender, and the ball snuck behind the keeper for BUFC to take the lead.

Unfortunately, the lead was short-lived, and Barca got back on level terms a few minutes before the end when one of their nippier players evaded the attentions of 3 of our guys, accepting a few lucky breaks along the way, and hit a crisp well-struck shot that gave Dave in goals little chance.

Despite the crocks, it was a hard-fought match and a plucky performance, an improvement upon last week in terms of effort and creativity, and the draw was probably a fair result.

MoM: 1) Kenny, 2) Thomas, 3) Lee & Dean