Frew’s men claim last-gasp winner on Ryman debut

Barkingside manager Matt Frew was lost for words after watching his men score a last-gasp winner to defeat Cheshunt 2-1 in the opening match of their Ryman North One campaign.

Frew was bursting with pride as he described their great day, saying: “It is hard to put it into words. I can’t get over it.

“It is a great start to Ryman North. I didn’t want to get beat so to go out and win our first game is great, it was a great day for the club.”

Frew had celebrated a last-minute winner against Great Wakering in April in ‘Di Canio fashion’ according to his staff and despite feeling under the weather all week, his emotions again took over as he celebrated Aaron Scott’s 94th-minute strike at the weekend.

“I’ve had a cold and I wasn’t my normal self in the dugout on Saturday,” he added.

“That all went out the window when we scored. It was the talk of the bar afterwards how I ran into the centre of the pitch jumping in the air.

“As soon as it hit the net I looked at the linesman because I thought it looked dubious, it looked offside, but he didn’t put his flag up and I knew it was over. The bench erupted, put it that way.”

Cheshunt went ahead in the 28th minute from a set-piece and the Barkingside boss praised the opposition for the training ground routine but further lauded his players’ efforts.

Frew said: “They scored from a training ground drill, they undone us with that, but I like a good corner drill so fair play to them.

“I thought ‘it is going to be one of those days’, especially being new in the league.

“I put my hands up to the boys, they rolled their sleeves up and were brilliant.”

Barkingside’s man of the match was goalkeeper Dan Mulrooney and he produced several ‘world class’ saves according to the Side boss.

One in particular was of ‘Premier League’ quality and his performance vindicated Frew’s decision to start him.

He added: “It was a hard call with him and Chris Clark because they are both top keepers, but I made the decision Friday night.

“He was immense and rightly won man of the match. He pulled off four or five great saves and kept us in the game.

“One of his saves you would see in the Premier League, they were all world class, but that one he was going the other way and it was going in but somehow he stretched a hand out to save it.”

Matt Gulfer equalised for Side with a wonderful free-kick and although it looked in as soon as he hit it, it was an effort that surprised the Barkingside manager.

Frew added: “When he (Gulfer) eyed it up, I thought it had to be crossed in.

“He was quite far out and wide, but he curled it around the wall and in.

“I knew it was going in as soon as he hit it, it was a great effort.”

Fitness levels are considerably different in the Essex Senior League, compared to the Ryman, and Frew praised his players for getting three points despite appearing tired.

He said: “We died out a bit around the 70-minute mark. The boys put in so much effort it had taken it out of them.

“We kept going though and got the three points in the end which was brilliant.”