Team: Linter, Lynes, Vere, Powell, Keen, Milner, Gromb, Read, Dennis ?, Mandolini, Wilby.

Sub: Gamson (on for Gromb, 20 mins)

Scorers: Milner, Read.

At half-past three things seemed to being going well from the Jokers, who had turned around a goal deficit to be leading 2-1. By twenty-five to four everything had changed as the Fowlers scored twice to claim the points.

Jokers had the luxury of a substitute, a rare occurrence these days, the late-arriving Gamson on the bench and Gromb switching to midfield. This was just as well because a recurrence of Gromb’s calf injury forced him off midway through the first half. By then the Fowlers had looked dangerous from set pieces, posing an aerial threat against a hesitant looking defence. But the first half saw them create chances of their own. Wilby almost scored a replica of his goal in the Cup against Shanty Town. Set free down the left once more, he again lobbed the keeper from the edge of the area, only this time the ball rebounded off the post and away to safety. Mandolini also went close, his shot narrowly beating the far post.

But it was the Fowlers who opened the scoring. Attacking down their right, they switched the play to the left, where an attacker had time to control and finished confidently. Jokers weren’t behind for long however, Milner picked the ball up in midfield and it went out to Lynes. Milner continued his run and was picked out by an excellent cross from Lynes to plant his header firmly past the Fowlers’s keeper.

Half-time saw honours even, but it was the Jokers who started the second half better and it was they who took the lead. Read was fed the ball on the edge of the area and, although his first shot was blocked, the ball rebounded to him. This time he chose an aerial route, producing an extraordinary chip that just dipped under the bar (no mean feat, since it was at the end of Market Road that has the crossbar with the dip in it). There were chances to extend the lead, Wilby in particular going close as his shot trickled just past the post with the keeper beaten. Gamson tried a flamboyant scissors kick which had more merit as a trap - the ball bobbling forlornly by his prone body. Immediately the Fowlers capitalized. A long ball out of defence found Powell and the Fowlers’s nippy no. 2 in a chase. As the pair neared the edge of the area, Linter advanced to deal with the situation, but missed his kick horribly, leaving the attacker to steer the ball into an empty net. Shortly afterwards Fowlers got the winner, the left winger rounding Keen before hitting a low cross that Powell could only deflect. As the ball travelled across the six-yard box it was the no. 2 who again reacted quicker, adjusting his feet to prod home with the outside of his right boot past Vere and Linter.

This was a game that, as a couple of the Fowlers were decent enough to admit, the Jokers deserved something out of. The goal signalled a desperate attempt to get the equalizer. A succession of corners was forced. An inswinging Read corner was cleared off the line at the far post. Another was headed over his own bar by the Fowlers no. 3. Balls skidded across the six yard box but no-one could find a touch. A final corner  produced an almighty goal-mouth scramble, with Mandolini’s prodded effort kept out by a defender on the line. In the melee that followed, it was the Fowlers keeper who emerged clutching the ball and that was the end of the Jokers as an attacking force. The result leaves them only one place above the relegation zone, but only one point behind the Fowlers. With one of the two teams or Green Park looking likely to join the Bairns in Division 2, and with Jokers still to play Green Park and Fowlers for the second time, a tense finish to the season looks likely.