STANLEY SHARPENS INTER AS REDS REMAIN IN TOP FLIGHT
After gaining promotion into the top flight, Inter were once again looking forward to locking horns with the North Berks elite.
They had a tough start to the league campaign with games against Lambourn, Drayton, Saxton Rovers and neighbours Harwell Village. By the end of September they only had 1 point to show from 4 games. The side went unbeaten in October, which included an impressive 2-0 win over high flying Drayton in the North Berks Cup.
November saw them play their worst football of the season, the lowest point being a 2-0 defeat to basement boys Marcham. It was also a month which saw a change in management with Roger Bartlett stepping down and Simon Stanley taking the hot seat, his first decision was to make Tom Baptie the new team captain.
December also saw a few transitions within the team with some high profile signings being made. Inter finished off 2007 by brushing aside Division 4 team Uffington in the North Berks Cup and beating fellow strugglers Coleshill 3-1 and things were looking up for Stanley’s side.
The first game back after the Christmas break was a Charity Shield 3rd round game against Coleshill; the team who broke the Atomics hearts in the final of the same competition the season before. After going 3-0 down in the first 15 minutes Inter managed to turn the game around and won 4-3 including 2 screamers by Gary ‘Pups’ Wilson.
They went into the next game against Wooton full of confidence and played some scintillating football in a 5-1 win with Mike ‘The Hammer’ Yardley grabbing 4 of the goals. The first fixture in February was against local rivals Harwell Village. The game looked to be heading Inters way but with 5 minutes to go Village were awarded a dubious penalty which was converted and the match finished a draw.
Inter followed up this game with a very impressive 4-2 win against Drayton with a Tom Baptie wonder strike being the pick of the bunch. That win took the side to 7 games unbeaten but this was ended by a 3-0 defeat to bogey team Ardington to knock us out of the North Berks Cup.
They finished off the month with a 3-1 win against Coleshill to gain some more valuable points in the road to safety. March was a poor month with Inter taking only 4 points from a possible 15, the only win coming against lowly Marcham.
The first game in a busy April was the Semi Final of the Charity Shield against Faringdon Town. Inter took the game to Faringdon early on and had the lion’s share of possession for most of the game but defensive errors and lack of cutting edge resulted in them losing 2-0 and their love affair with the Charity Shield was over for another year.
Stanley’s men now had to play 6 games in 24 days to take them to the end of the season. The squad was stretched due to injuries and work commitments but they still managed to take 10 points from their remaining games with some nice football being played along the way to finish on 31 points and guarantee a place in the top flight for another season.
MANAGERS PLAYER: TOM BAPTIE
PLAYERS PLAYER: GARY CLARKE
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