Rams Share The Spoils In Eight-Goal Thriller

IN the proverbial game of two halves, the Great Notley Rams produced a memorable comeback to share the points against the Galleywood Youth Hawks for the second time this season.

Having already drawn two-all with the Hawks earlier this year, the Rams went into this game with Jamie McNeilly in goal, a back three of Ben Rodley, Matthew Norris and George Morris, a midfield pair of Sam Donnelly and Olivia Hales, with Emma Root up front.

However on a pitch which was significantly larger to their home base on Notley Green, they struggled to adapt to the wide open spaces, and some defensive confusion led to an opening goal for the home team.

There was more concern for the Rams however, as despite the intervention of substitute Tom McInenerny, they went further behind following a brace of goals before the half time whistle to go into the break three goals down.

However early in the second half, substitute Jonathan Stoneman gave the Rams some hope when he stabbed home an instinctive finish from inside the box.

And there was more reason for optimism when Donnelly followed up on his snapshot by charging down the clearance which rebounded into the back of the onion bag.

Donnelly quickly added to his tally with a well taken second, before Matthew Norris marauded forward to fire home a sweetly taken right foot effort which put the Rams ahead for the first time in the game.

For a time it looked as though the Rams were set to leave the Marconi Leisure ground with a real smash and grab raid, but some sustained pressure from the Hawks towards the end of the match led to a sweetly taken volley direct from a corner which beat Hales in the Notley goal to clinch an equaliser.

Following the thrilling fifty minutes, Rams boss John Stoneman was reflective on sharing the points. He said: "Even as their third goal went in I was confident that there was something for us in this match, and I told the team the same at half time.

"Our comeback showed the resilience that we have within this team, and even though we had our noses in front at one stage, I think that a draw was probably a fair result for both teams.

"Once again we learned a lot about our squad of players."

More pictures from the game can be seen by Clicking Here