DING DONG, THE WHITS ARE DEAD

After a slow start to the season, Borough 6s exploded into life in a real ding-dong encounter against a Whitgifts side who started the day as league leaders.

Fearful of a repeat of last season’s fixture – the 6s' only league defeat of last season – all the pre-match talk was of how to stop Whitgifts’ powerful forward line from scoring.

When the home side netted first on the 25-minute mark, therefore, it would have been easy for Borough heads to drop; instead, the response was a 15 minute period of aggressive, direct football that saw us heading into half time with a 3-1 lead after a debut goal for McQueen was followed by close-range strikes from Kershaw and Olsson.

After the restart, though, legs started to tire and it became harder and harder to match the work rate of the first half. On the hour mark, one of the Whitgift forwards found himself on the edge of the box with plenty of time to pick his spot, which he duly did.

Five minutes later a rather softly awarded penalty was dispatched past Cibardo to level the scores at 3-3, with the home team now looking to push on for the win.

That is, until the reintroduction of talismanic Vice-Captain Joff Black back onto the field of play. A good, low finish restored Borough’s lead and some staunch defending from Theobald-Craig and stand-in centre back Neill Duffy kept it intact, although not without a late scare as the ball was smashed against the angle of the goal before being heroically cleared by Gnaneswaran.