Andy Barcham makes unexpected contribution to Gills' Wembley triumph
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Andy Barcham (right)
celebrates with Stuart Lewis Picture: Matthew
Reading
by Matthew Panting
You would have got long odds on the
man Gillingham were looking to break down the Shrewsbury defence,
doing his best piece of work inside his own penalty area.
But that’s exactly how the
afternoon panned out for Gills dangerman Andy Barcham.
There were just 17 minutes left on
the clock when Barcham raced back to deny Shrewsbury’s goalscoring
midfielder Ben Davies a clear sight of goal.
It proved a turning point in the
game and Barcham believes it helped drive his team to victory.
"It was vital at the time,"
admitted Barcham. "I remember it well because I spoke to John
Nutter about it.
"They did a great bit of movement
to get past us both and it confused me and John for a bit. But I
was lucky as he had a poor first touch and it enabled me to get
back in there.
"It was quite worrying at the time
as I thought he was going to have a free shot at goal but after I
cleared the ball I was then worried about whether the referee might
have been in a poor line of vision and that he could have given a
penalty.
"It helped us to push on more, it
tightened us up at the back and it allowed us to go forward more
and get the goal."
Barcham admitted he was frustrated
by his own performance in the first half but was keen to leave
Wembley knowing he had given everything he had.
"I was a bit frustrated in the
first half as I didn’t see much of the ball," he said. "I’m not
sure why but I got a lot more of the ball in the second half and
did a few things I was happy with.
"I was pleased to get involved more
in the second half because the last thing you want to do is leave
Wembley having regrets.
"We had the majority of the game
and deserved to win, although they did have a spell when they put
us under pressure.
"We’ve been defending really well
lately as a team and the back four were excellent – I couldn’t see
them scoring. We got the result and I think it was well
deserved."
Tuesday, May 26 2009
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