Report
It was third time lucky for Forest last night as they won by the solitary goal, against a very busy Barking side, having had the ball in the back of the net twice earlier in the game.
Barking signalled their intent right from the start by forcing the ball into Forest’s last third of the pitch and following the ball quickly. It took them some time to get used to the blustery wind but they soon began to make this work for them too.
Forest tried to keep the ball on the ground and made the most of their openings to cause Barking problems. Particularly lively was John Morgan, on the right, who managed to keep his feet better than his defender Nick Savage.
Barking had the first real chance after 18 minutes when they forced on of a series of corners. The wind gave defence and attack problems alike so, when the ball came in to the near post it ricocheted form the heads of two Barking players and went just wide when it could have just as easily gone into the net.
Barking continued to win corners but with Gavin King in fine form in Forest’s goal, they were not finding a way through.
On 38 minutes Forest’s Declan Perkins had the ball in the back of the net after a neat through ball from midfield: his turn and shoot move seemed to have the visitors in front until a late flag deemed him to be offside.
Forest pressed and had another breakthrough when Chris Cashman refused to give up on a ball that seemed to be going out for a goal kick. He kept the ball in play and beat two men on the edge of the Barking penalty area. He then crossed from an acute angle only to see the ball skim the far post.
The second half saw another very strong defensive display from Forest as they began to soak up the pressure from bottom of the table Barking. The home side piled on the pressure and referee Mr Venamore seemed unable to take account of the conditions as he rewarded Barking with free kick after free kick around Forest’s penalty area. The defence stood firm and Barking were unable to make many real chances.
Perkins had the ball in the net again on the hour but, once again, he was ruled offside. Forest’s superior attacking skills were rewarded a minute later when Warren Ryan rose at the back post to head home.
Apart from a screaming 40 yard shot from Morgan, the game settled back to the previous pattern with Barking working hard but being totally snuffed out by Forest’s defence.
The game ended on a sour note when, in injury time, Stuart Elliot received a second yellow card for “one niggling foul too many” according to the referee. Why the referee decided this was appropriate at the very end of the match is open to conjecture.