Blues on the rise as Parker's brace fires Marlow to victory over Barton Rovers

Mark Bartley

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Marlow are beginning to look like a team capable of challenging for promotion in the Southern League Central Division, with Saturday’s 3-1 victory over sixth placed Barton Rovers their third league success on the spin.

Manager Mark Bartley will be looking for his side to maintain this current vein of form over a much longer spell; however, they’ve shown in recent weeks - after dispensing with certain players the manager didn’t feel were up to the task and the return of other players from injury - they’re capable of challenging the very best in the division.

They’ve given themselves a mountain to climb if they are to get back amongst the front runners, having stuttered and stumbled in the early weeks of the season following their demotion from the Southern League Premier Division.

However, four wins from their last six matches, and five positive results from six, would suggest that the Blues are back on the up.

Saturday’s deserved victory lifts the Blues to 14th in the table, 11 points outside the top five cut off for the play-offs. However, Marlow do have a game in hand over most of the teams above them and all the teams in the top five.

An impressive first half showing at Oak Tree Road laid the groundwork for Saturday’s win over Barton.

The hosts took the lead after 12 minutes when Mitch Parker picked up a ball from Khalil and dinked a beautiful shot over the keeper and into the far corner.

Their second goal came from the penalty spot after Carr was brought down in the area in the 26th minute.

Parker stepped up and sent the keeper the wrong way to score his, and Marlow’s, second, while the third goal came a couple of minutes before the interval.

After scoring twice in last week’s 4-0 romp over the London Lions, Flavio Gyawu-Kyem was at it again, this time jinking past a couple of defenders before rifling a shot into the corner of the net.

Barton were reduced to 10 men in the second half when Alfie Agar was hacked down by a crude challenge from Ryan Neufville, with a yellow card also brandished to a member of the Barton backroom staff. But despite going close on several more occasions, it was the visitors who found the net next in the 76th minute, Alfie Warman getting his name on the scoresheet.

After the game, Bartley spoke to club media about the performance and their recent uptick in form.

“I’m really pleased, we’ve been showing progress over the last four or five weeks,” he said. “We knew this would be a big game. We played them in the first game of the season (which the Blues lost 2-0) and we know they’re a side that will likely be in and around the play-off places.

“This is a good way to measure how far we’ve come. In the first half I thought we were fantastic.

“Coming in 3-0 and they couldn’t have argued if we’d got a fourth. I thought we were really good value for it.

“Second half I thought we started really well. They made a change and went to a three. We adapted fantastically; we created a few opportunities but didn’t take any of them. They went down to 10 men, and it became a bit ragged which can happen in football. They managed to nick a goal but look, ultimately, for us and the management team we’re really pleased with that today.

“We work hard on things (in training) and it doesn’t always happen overnight. It takes time for people to gel and relationships to build. At the start of the season Mitch was suspended and then injured. We’ve also had other players who were unavailable, but we’re starting to get the group back together. We’re starting to see those relationships, and we’ve been doing a lot of work over the last few Thursdays on some of the shape stuff. We can see it coming to life, and we’re just going to get better.

“It was great attacking play from us today but all around the team were really dogged, winning the battles and that’s what helped us get the three points.”

Marlow are back at home tomorrow evening when second bottom Rayners Lane are the visitors to Oak Tree Road. A win would help the Blues creep a little higher in the table and a little closer to the play-off spots. Despite being second bottom, Rayners Lane defeated Biggleswade on Friday evening with a second half goal from Guiseppe Delgaudio (73').