Bell Inn record first ever senior win

The Bell Inn achieved a milestone on Sunday, winning a game in senior football for the first time.

An impressive display saw a late Josh Farrow penalty give the Bell Inn a 4-3 win, against a strong Acle Reserves side.

The rise of the Bell Inn has been quite amazing.

Formed just 3 years ago, they have gained successive promotions from Division 4B, 3B and last season 2B, to find themselves just one promotion away from the top tier of Sunday football in Norfolk.

Gone are the days of Tom Brown and Ian Babb up front, with Josh Eyre and Kris Lane supporting them from midfield.

Now, under the management of Brown and Neil Anderson, there are 22 very good players to pick from, albeit almost all of them being attackers.

Baring this in mind, Brown went against some senior figures on Sunday and opted for a 3-4-3 formation, with only one natural defender in the starting 11.

The back 3 consisted of Calvin Butler (winger/striker), Marc Garrod (midfielder) and Danny Bland (sober for once).

To make things more controversial, his two substitutes were defenders.

One of them being Robbie Stone, taking part in his first game for about half a year due to excessive alcohol abuse.

Things started badly as Acle scored early on.

However, the rest of the first half saw some of the best attacking football ever to grace Barnham Broom playing field.

Led by (quote Tom Brown) the best player in the league Simon Freemantle, the Bell Inn formed attack after attack and completely demolished the opposition.

The Acle manager came up to Brown and Bean after just 40 minutes and said, ‘You are the best team in this league by far, you will walk it’. A very nice testament to increase the players ego’s.

Freemantle scored an equaliser with a neat finish, then gave Bell Inn the lead with a brilliant solo goal, where he beat about 4 players and curled the ball into the top corner.

James McCloy made it 3 with a debut goal, tapping home from close range after another period of glorious football.

Acle did pull one back just before half time with a stupid free kick which everyone missed.

Half Time – Bell Inn 3 v 2 Acle

The team talk was a very happy one, with most players pleasuring themselves over the new look formation.

 

During half time I looked on Twitter and noticed Jack Tarrant (sitting on a beach in Spain or somewhere) and Joe Pattison (on a hospital bed with dead foot) were tweeting about the game. The Bell Inn really is their life.

The second half started slowly though and Acle made it 3-3.

Acle then hit the post and had a clear cut penalty turned down; the Bell Inn had to lift their game.

With 2 subsitutes on the bench, both defenders, attacking options were limited.

With 15 minutes to go, Robbie Stone (left back) came on upfront for McCloy and Liam Ward (right back) came on to play left wing back for the ever-running Jesse Payne-Wilkins.

Managerial genius.

With just a few minutes left on the clock, a typical Dale Simpson run resulted in him being fouled in the box and up stepped Farrow to do the rest.

Credit to Farrow, who missed a penalty last week against Poringland, but didn’t let that affect him and smashed the ball in exactly the same place.

The last minute saw Stone holding the ball up in the corner and winning throw in after throw in.

Very annoying for the opposition. Very funny for us.

Final Score – Bell Inn 4 v 3 Acle Reserves

(Freemantle 2, McCloy, Farrow)

PLAYER RATINGS

Ben Fisher – 7 – No chance with the goals.

Calvin Butler – 9 – Very impressive debut despite playing out of position. Maybe he is a defender.

Marc Garrod – 9 – Held the line well at the back, very composed.

Danny Bland – 8 – This man is a completely different player when sober. MUST. STOP. DRINKING.

Reece Ashman – 8 – Took one for the team by playing wing-back. Hard work but was superb throughout. Same again this week 🙂

Jesse Payne-Wilkins – 8 – Ditto Reece Ashman.

Josh Farrow – 8 – Giving the captaincy by Brown to make him try harder. Has worked. Superb.

Adam Brown – 8 – Box to box midfielder. Failed to score his standard ‘1 goal a game’.

Simon Freemantle – 9 – MAN OF THE MATCH – I only run his team so I can watch him play. Some ridiculous skills.

Dale Simpson – 7 – Quiet by his standards and a rare game with no goal. Still made the winner though.

James McCloy – 7 – Slowly easing into his Bell Inn career. Looking impressive.

SUBS

Robbie Stone – 10 – Came on at 3-3, we won 4-3.

Liam Ward – 10 – Ditto Robbie Stone.

Very good game against one of the best sides we have played in our short history.

And this was all without 5 of last season’s cup final starters.

Luke Appleton, Jack Tarrant, Joe Pattison, Jamie Butler and Richard Donovan are all yet to come into the equation, amongst a few others.

This weekend the Bell Inn travel to Heartsease, who have a 100% record so far.

This will change on Sunday.

Oh, and this is the 100th Bell Inn blog. Thanks for reading.

Kind regards.

Tom ‘who needs defenders when you have attackers’ Brown.

Bell Inn draw as curse of kit continues

The curse of the new Bell Inn kit continued yesterday as they were held to a 4-4 draw away to fellow promoted side Poringland.

The £500 kit, awarded to them by the FA for reaching last seasons County Cup final, has been worn 3 times now and has resulted in a loss, a draw and a poor performance at a 5 a side competition.

Managers Tom Brown and Neil Anderson were up until the early hours this morning discussing whether or not to continue to wear the kit or go back to the ‘peoples favourite’ luminous yellow jersey.

In usual style, the Bell Inn turned up in late with Danny Bland providing the most comedy before the match, spending 10 minutes outside trying to make himself sick.

Bland was caught on camera just hours before the game, trying it on with two of his mates girlfriends. Unfortunately for him, they both turned him down.

Eventually most of the squad arrived, with Jamie Butler and Johnny Page arriving just 5 minutes before kick off and James McCloy not showing at all.

The Bell Inn were without 7 of the 14 players who featured in last season’s cup final and new faces made their debuts.

Jack Tarrant was suspended, Richard Donovan and Joe Pattison injured.

Chris Richmond has gone completely AWOL and Luke Appleton, Will Farrow and James Hyde are rumoured to be having a break from the club in protest of the new kit being worn.

Also, Robbie Stone was given the weekend off due to illness after a week in Ibiza.

This saw debuts for Ben Fisher, Johnny Page, Marc Garrod and Jesse Payne-Wilkins.

Josh Farrow was handed the captaincy for the game in Donovan’s and Tarrant’s absence and lead by example by missing a penalty after 20 minutes.

However, Farrow followed up the goalkeepers save and smashed home the rebound.

One soon became two after a brilliant through ball by Reece Ashman was chased down and casually finished by Dale Simpson. The Bell Inn were in control.

Both goals were dramatically celebrated by the ‘still drunk’ Page as he ran lengths of the pitch screaming with delight.

Page was later seen with bleeding gums as the previous night started to take his toll.

Poringland them came back into the game and new goalkeeper Ben Fisher had to make a number of decent stops to keep them out.

He was beaten just before half time though as a looping header found its way in at the back post.

Half time – Poringland 1 v 2 Bell Inn.

New signing James McCloy eventually turned up, unexpectedly, stinking of alcohol. He got changed and ran the line as he warmed up to enter the action.

On came Jesse Payne-Wilkins for a tired Liam Ward but the Bell Inn were pulled level after Poringland scored a second.

It was then time for McCloy, but as he was about to come on, the referee stopped him as he hadn’t been listed amongst the substitutes.

This lead to a touchline fight between Brown and McCloy which left the latter in tears.

With not long remaining, the impressive Simon Freemantle picked up the ball on the left, beat about 5 players and somehow curled the ball into the bottom corner. It looked like the Bell Inn had won it.

But Poringland hit back immediately.

As Brown and Bean bickered with each other on the touchline, on whether to go 3 at the back and push for the win, or settle for the draw, Adam Brown found himself one on one and chipped the ball over the keeper.

Wild celebrations emerged as this time surely the Bell Inn had won it.

But no. A poor refereeing decision and shoody defending allowed another Poringland equaliser and the game ended 4-4.

Final Score – Poringland 4 v 4 Bell Inn

(Farrow, Simpson, Freemantle, A.Brown)

PLAYER RATINGS

Ben Fisher – 9 – MAN OF MATCH -Let in four goals but made five or six outstanding saves.

Liam Ward – 6 – Fatigued towards the end of the first half.

Jamie Butler – 8 – Still drunk in the first half and plays a lot better drunk.

Johnny Page – 7 – Completely smashed for the whole game. That’s why we signed him.

Danny Bland – 6 – Very worried about his drinking habits.

Reece Ashman – 7 – Great assist for second goal.

Marc Garrod – 7 – Promising debut, more to come.

Adam Brown – 8 – Almost the match winner.

Simon Freemantle – 8 – When he got the ball, was unplayable.

Josh Farrow – 8 – Played better centrally, led by example.

Dale Simpson – 8 – Always plays well.

SUBS

Jesse Payne-Wilkins – 7 – Caused Poringland serious problems.

James McCloy – 10 – Great commitment turning up, albeit late, will start next week for his efforts.

Tom Brown – 0 – On the bench ready to make his senior football debut. Bottled it. Maybe next week.

Good first game, disappointed not to win which makes next weeks game at home to Acle Reserves (I think) absolutely crucial.

Potentially back to the yellow kit.

Regards.

Tom ‘Who wants my job?’ Brown.