Excellent Performance, Beautiful Football, Wonderful Match, No More Than We Deserved, The Players were Great, A Number of Fine Performances etc. etc .
ALL WORDS HEARD DURING AND AFTER THIS COUNT Y CUP QUARTER FINAL MATCH

This was the HIGHEST Match that any M A R S H R A N G E R S F. C. Team had ever played in. Others have been great performances but in Football Status THIS was the Highest Ever. Many Congratulations to All the Marsh Players, as well as the Manager ( Mr David Campbell ) & Chief Coach ( Mr Tony Heath ), with never forgetting the Secretary ( Mr Denzil Lobb ) for all his hard work often unseen by the Players & Supporters. CAN MARSH GO ON FURTHER THAN THE SEMI - See February 13th ?

Marsh started with some, perhaps, bad news.... Neither of the two keepers were available so in went Phil Tubb, yet again. A strong defence played in front of him with Harry Thomas & Craig Drew putting in fine, no let’s say superb, performances. These were backed up by overlapping help from birthday boy ( ** 21 yesterday ** ) Jonny Wiggins, Tom Veal, & Steven Cloherty. Steve played an outstanding match himself, up & down the wing dribbling the ball on the attack and fighting for possession when needed in defence. Up front Mat Monhon again looked useful. and combined well with equally skilful Paul Nolan. Tommy Edwards led the midfield backed up by Jack Bigwood, & Daniel Lobjoit. Later, Alex Henderson came on with pace, and appeared to mesmerise the Bedfont side into defeat. Andrew Thomas Harrison Ashby & Miles Wiggins were on hand if needed, and HARD WORK earned this victory with a Semi-Final, ...... yes SEMI-FINAL place in the Middlesex County Cup, where they will play the winner of Broadfields v Indian Gymkhana which was postponed today.
Bedfont opened the scoring with a good move that, apparently, a top scorer from their higher League Team finished off, as he had done on Boxing Day in their higher league match. This time he brought the ball down, rounded our keeper, and tapped the ball home after 15 minutes. Marsh never gave in, although for a while Bedfont were on top. Marsh then rallied and put on some good pressure of their own. Bedfont seemed to weaken, although perhaps this was Marsh getting stronger. A few chances fell to Marsh before the ball broke nicely in the Bedfont penalty area and MAT MONHON seized this opportunity and fired the ball past the keeper for the equaliser . No more than Marsh deserved. Marsh now seemed to have the upper hand, and although couldn’t score, due mainly to a well organised Bedfont defence, kept them under pressure. On one occasion Harry Thomas gathered the ball in defence, beat Bedfonts midfield, knocked the ball forward, and chased after it only to be stopped by ..... an eager MARSH player in an offside position. Oh Well ! Also at the back Craig Drew tackled like a demon, a man possessed, and put in a wonder show to keep Bedfont at distance. When Bedfont did get through, on rare occasions, Craig, Harry, & the rest of the defence held firm.
The second half got under way, with Marsh on the attack. Within a few minutes Marsh kept the pressure on Bedfonts defence and for some reason a defender decided to play "volleyball" and palmed the ball away ????? A Penalty. Most Teams would be happy but with the record of Marsh & penalty kicks recently, this was not a formality. This time Tommy Edwards stepped up and placed the ball past the diving keeper. 2 – 1 to Marsh. YES..... 2 – 1 to Marsh, and well deserved. For most of the rest of the half Marsh were able to hold on comfortably, barring a few mishaps, whilst attacking Bedfont themselves. The last 10 minutes saw Bedfont throw everything at Marsh but with a now tiring Marsh defence / Team they still managed to hold on. THEN, with two minutes to go keeper Phil Tubb seemed to lose his sanity !!!, and pulverised a Bedford player thus giving away a penalty. Up stepped Bedfont to level the scores and ........MISSED. Yes he missed. Marsh held out for what goes down in Marsh Rangers F.C. History as the "BIGGEST" Match played by ANY Marsh Team since we started back in 1980.

For Once, and perhaps only once in his lifetime, the Chairman was virtually speechless.
He was so PROUD of the Players, and Management Staff, and so pleased for them .
Reported by Clive Goodman