Reserves denied point by late Chalk Lane winner
19th August 2019| Barton Town Reserves | 1-2 | Chalk Lane |
| Meffen 73 PEN | Tait 10, Elliott, 76 |
The Reserves started life in the Premier Division with an opening day 2-1 home defeat against current champions Chalk Lane.
| # | Player |
| 1 | Sam Wood (c) |
| 2 | Bryn Everitt (🔻 Hall, 76) |
| 3 | Nathan Patchett |
| 4 | Clay Bryant |
| 5 | Scott Meffen âš½ |
| 6 | Adam Whall 🔴 |
| 7 | Harry Finnis |
| 8 | Lee Everitt |
| 9 | Michael Broom |
| 10 | Jack Finnis (🔻 Hay, 63) |
| 11 | Jack Crofton |
| 12 | Mark Hay (🔺 J. Finnis, 63) |
| 13 | Liam Graham |
| 14 | Kieran Hall (🔺 B. Everitt, 76) |
| 15 | Ben Herrick |
| 16 | Elliot Sampson |
The game but without its drama which could have seen the Reserves snatch a draw but for a late goal from Chalk’s Josh Elliott.
The Reserves gave debuts to new summer signings Wood, Whall, Broom and Hay in a squad that saw manager Liam Graham missing a number of key players.
Barton got off to the worst possible start going 1-0 down in the 10th minute to a Grant Tait goal who found the back of the Swans net.
Things for the Swans only went from bad to worse when in the 22nd minute what seemed a fairly innocuous challenge from debutant Whall in the middle of the park saw him receive a straight red for dangerous and foul play.
From then on Barton didn’t see much of the ball, and managed to go in at half time with the score remaining just 1-0.
A reshuffle at half time and a superb workman like performance from Barton which saw Chalk dominate the ball with Josh Eccles running the show from the middle of the park, found some success.
Barton remaining resolute at the back with an impressive Clay Bryant at the heart of the defence marshalling the back four and keeping Chalk at bay with body on the line type defending. Sam Wood called into action to deny Chalk on more than one occasion.
Barton then had a glorious opportunity to equalise in the 73rd minute when Crofton was sent running into the box by an old school ball over the top he was adjudged to have been pushed in the back and the referee awarded the penalty, Scott Meffen stepped up and converted in the bottom left hand corner to give Barton hope of snatching an opening day point.
But football is a cruel game, just minutes later Elliott got in behind the Barton defence which had put a massive shift in and coolly curled home in the far corner to deny Barton any chance of getting anything.
So Barton Reserves began with a defeat, which they will now look to put right this coming Thursday in another home game to South Cave Utd who shocked title favourites LIV Supplies on the opening day. Kick Off is 7:30PM at The Easy Buy Stadium and Free entry.