Bartley’s young Marlow side show resilience to overcome Rayners Lane

Enrique Tiamuna. Photo: Marlow FC

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Marlow claimed back-to-back league wins for the first time in several months on Saturday as they saw off a second half fightback from Rayners Lane to claim a well-deserved 3-1 win away from home.

For manager Mark Bartley it showed his young, inexperienced side is learning how to grind out results when momentum appears to be turning against them.

Having beaten Northwood 2-0 in a routine home win the previous weekend, the Blues travelled to a new-look Rayners Lane side in better spirits, and they led 2-0 at the break thanks to a double from the impressive Seb D’Aversa. However, Rayners - fresh from a 2-2 draw away to Flackwell Heath - pulled a goal back in the early stages of the second half and for a spell, Bartley feared his team may fold to another disappointing setback.

Instead, they rode out the storm and scored again in the closing stages through Enrique Tiamuna to claim a well-deserved win.

The result pretty much ends any lingering fears of relegation for the Blues, and though it’s unlikely to spark any serious charge towards the play-off places, it does show this Marlow team are now finding their feet in the Southern League Central Division.

“As a management team we’ve been there before, but for players who are quite young, they don’t necessarily have the experience of turning their form around.” said Bartley this week.

“In the last couple of weeks, they’ve worked hard in training to take on board some tweaks to the system, and I think we’ve seen the rewards of that.

“Saturday’s win was very different to the week before. Rayners are a new team and have a lot of good players, who’ve played above this level, so it was a much different challenge. They played with confidence and aren’t laboured with several defeats like say Northwood were the week before.

“We faced a team that were full of confidence and have a lot of ability and create a lot of chances. We knew we had to be on our guard for that. But for 90 minutes we put in a great performance. We conceded a sloppy goal which has been an issue for us over the course of the season.

“But what was interesting this time is that the resilience was there. We had a 10-minute spell where we had to dig deep and then we got the third goal and that killed the game off. We were well worth the three points, but this was a step forward from the group in terms of being able to stand up to the pressure we did face against a team that is very good in possession.”

The Blues have brought in a couple more young players in recent weeks who could help them to a more comfortable position in the table. Tyrese Kamara looked assured in goal while the on-loan Wycombe Wanderers youngster Chris Lutonadio will add to Bartley’s offensive options.

  “We know the markets we’re operating in and what we’re trying to get is, yes, players who are young, but ones who have a little more confidence about them,” he said.

“They’ve both adapted well but we’re also seeing the continued growth of someone like Seb D’Aversa who’s been a real leader in the team over these past few games. He’s blossoming into the player we all know he can be.”

Next up for the Blues are home matches against promotion chasing Ware on Saturday and Leighton Town on Tuesday. but Bartley believes the Blues have greater resilience heading into these matches having waded through ‘the hard miles’ this season.

“Saturday was a test of character, and our resilience was tested but we stood up to those tests, and we now go into two very different games against teams who are chasing promotion,” added Bartley. “We have the belief though that we can go and do the same again.

“Our home form has been ok. It’s the away form where we’ve had some difficulty. We’re eighth in the table for home form so it’s our away form that’s been difficult for us. We know we can go into these home games and be competitive against pretty much everyone.

“We’ve had some runs when it’s been ok. But when you get a young team that doesn’t have much experience, when they get onto a bad run, they find it hard to navigate their way out of it.

“Unfortunately, sometimes, they just need to experience it. They’ve now figured a bit of it out and if they found themselves in a situation where they lose a couple of games, they’d be able to bounce back a little bit quicker. We’ve had to walk those hard miles to understand that. But I’m looking forward to the weekend, we’re in a good space and I’m sure the hard work during the week will translate into a good performance.”