LOOK out behind you, Barnstoneworth are on the charge.
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That's the message the Orange club have sent out to Western Premier League's top two pairing of Bathurst '75 and Panorama FC after a big performance on Saturday.
Barnies thumped league leaders '75 6-2 after the Orange club ran away with the contest during a second half played entirely in an 11-versus-10 situation.
Bathurst '75 lost Agieg Aluk to injury half an hour into the game and that became a double blow when Andrew Smith was shown a red card for putting hand to ball on a shot bound for the back of the net.
The ensuing penalty took Barnies to a 2-1 half-time lead, and even though '75 at one stage brought things back to a 3-2 deficit the numbers disadvantage was too much to deal with.
Barnstoneworth will be chasing back to back wins over Bathurst sides when they take on Panorama in the penultimate round this coming weekend.
Panorama missed an opportunity to go level with '75 at the top of the table after they were held to a 1-all draw at home against Macquarie United FC on Saturday.
Bathurst '75 still lead on 27 points, with Panorama on 25 and Barnies moving up to 24.
Bathurst '75 co-coach Andrew Fearnley said his team didn't make the most of early chances and it allowed the Orange side to get themselves on top.
"We started fairly evenly and were probably slightly better in the first 20 minutes. We had a penalty that we missed but then we were able to score. We were really unfortunate not to get a penalty for a challenge on Agieg," he said.
"They then scored and then there was the red card, and things got really tough from that moment. That decision was disappointing, to be honest.
"It was difficult but we still approached the second half with intent to get something out of the game, and we had a couple of chances, but they scored first off the counter and that really hurt."
Barnies capped off their win against the 10-man '75 team in style as Ben Giumelli curled in a long range effort that could go down as a goal of the season contender.
"The last two goals were worldies. The free kick from Carlos was very decent, to be fair, and we shouldn't have given him that sort of opportunities," Fearnley said.
"Then the last goal from Ben was very well hit from a long way out. Those two goals I think highlighted that it just wasn't going to be our day on Saturday."
Panorama co-coach Ricky Guihot was naturally disappointed not to come away from maximum points, especially in a game where his team created more chances, but gave kudos to a hungry Macquarie outfit.
"I've got a lot of time for Macquarie and what they do as a club. They promote their juniors and have a lot of great older heads at the club," he said.
"Jamie Lobb played down at Manly in the premier league, Jayden Barber also played in Bathurst with Mark Rooke's young fellas, and there's Bailey Auld at left back who I've seen play since he was about 15 and I really rate him as a footballer.
"We should have killed the game off. You can let a side like that, with a mix of experience and youth combined, be in a game for that long. The effort and the attitude was right, it was just one of those days where it didn't come off for us."
There's now an eight-point gap from Barnstoneworth to fourth-placed Macquarie on the ladder.
That means the top three has been decided, but not what order they'll finish in.
Guihot said it's nice for his team to have their destiny completely in their own hands.
"That result on the weekend was a fair result for the game. At the end of the day it's not a poor result," he said.
"If we win both our games we finish first. It doesn't matter what happens in other games. That's all that it boils down to.
"It'll be a massive game for us next weekend against Barnies. They're easily the form team over this back half of the season, there's no arguing with that."
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