The Just kept their winning run going this weekend with a hard fought victory in Easthouses.

This was not the prettiest of games, especially considering the football that is normally played in this fixture but having never beaten Roslin before The Just players know this is a very important win no matter how silky they looked in Doing it.

These teams have played each other eight times in the two years they have both been in the ESAFA with the Roslin team taking all the available league points and winning the cup ties too. The Just came close to beating them in a pre-season friendly when Da Vinci equalised with two minutes to go. That game ended in a draw so the adulation felt by the Just team was clear for all to see when the final whistle sounded at the end of this encounter.

Although The Just are unbeaten at the top of the league in the first division they have started every game this season by going one nil down in the early stages. This week it was to be no different. A switch of play from the Da Vinci midfield out to their left hand side saw The Just’s right back, Big Greig Ruxton, caught in no mans land between the midfield and the defence. The inevitable lunge from Ruxton was short and left Mark Banks at sweeper little chance of catching the Da Vinci winger.

With pace to burn all he had to do was knock it past Banks and head into the box for an easy squared pass into the centre forward who slipped it past the keeper into the bottom corner of the net. 1-0 Roslin but they were far from cruising.

The Just rallied immediately, all the cries from The Just players being that they didn’t deserve to be behind and this goal only served to spur them on. They lifted their performance levels and took the game to Roslin with a bit more determination. Richard McAleer in the engine room for TJ started to win a lot more tackles in the centre of the park and was beginning to enjoy the change from centre half to centre mid a lot more as the game went on. A couple of well timed tackles with good through balls to the forwards suggested that this could be Mackies day. Certainly the period when The Just got their equaliser saw Mackie, with a very able deputy in Steph Wilson, dominate the play in the midfield and influence the game more and more until the goal for The Just which by this time they deserved finally came.

It was Liam Rogers, the top scorer for The Just so far this season, who created the goal but it was through extremely hard work from McAleer that he even got a chance to do this.

After three crunching tackles in a row the ball finally broke just inside The Just half and Rogers slid in to scoop it away from the feet of one of the Da Vinci midfielders. Quickly pulling himself to his feet Rogers looked up and saw Duncan Barr in between the centre half and full back. A clever through ball left Barr with an opportunity to test the Da Vinci defence for pace. With a defender either side of him he burst through the offside trap like a whippet and caught the ball as it was nearing the edge of the eighteen yard box. One touch was enough to roll the ball past the onrushing keeper and into the bottom corner of the net.

At 1-1 with only half an hour played you would be forgiven for thinking that the floodgates were going to open for both sides but up until half time these two goals turned out to be the only real opportunities of the first half. Both defences were marking tight and both midfields were working hard so finding time on the ball to be creative was proving to be the most difficult aspect of this game.

The Just made one change in the first half, Dave Logan replacing Ruxton at right back for his league debut but there was to be no more changes at half time. The second half was just as tight and competitive as the first and as the game wore on it was becoming more and more obvious that one goal was probably going to win this game.

The Just made a change after ten minutes of the second half with Michael Melrose coming on to replace Rogers. Steph Wilson moved up front alongside Duncan Barr and Melrose slotted back into the role he is most comfortable in. In the last couple of weeks he had been shuffled out wide to the right but looked far more comfortable in his usual central role this week.  Winning possession and starting attacks in exactly the way he is meant to.

It was a ball over the top from Melrose that almost created the second for The Just. With Barr chasing it with everything he had left in the tank the keeper looked a bit shaky as he came out to clear. Barr shut him down brilliantly and latched onto the loose ball before anybody had a chance to get back to close him down,  however, the legs were going from him by this point and he screwed his shot wide of an open goal for a blooper that wouldn’t be out of place in a “what happened next” on Question of Sport.

It was to make no difference in the end as Barr walked away with the man of the match award after getting his second, and the winner, after eighty-five minutes.

The Just had survived a penalty scare on eighty minutes when McAleer hauled one of the Da Vinci strikers to the ground for what was a stone waller, only for the same player to slide the ball wide of the bottom corner and out for a by kick. Five minutes later Da Vinci were kicking themselves when Barr found himself charging down a ball that had broke in the eighteen yard box to finish the game off with only a few minutes left to play.

Melrose and Wilson both should have done a little better in the box but it made no difference as the ball finally came out to Barr who made no mistake, drilling the ball low into the net to clinch the game for The Just.

In the whole of the second half only Paul Glynn at left back had provided the fans with any moments of skill to entertain them. Chasing back with two players breathing down his neck, a stepover and turn saw off the first player and then, with all his teammates screaming there was another man on, which it turned out Glynn knew more about than they thought, Glynn dummied a quick pass and slipped the ball clean through the legs of the big Da Vinci striker and advanced on to set up another Just attack.

This and Steph Wilson’s chance in the box where he ballooned a glorious opportunity over the bar with the keeper lying on the ground for some reason were the only two real moments of class from either side in a game where both teams literally cancelled each other out. But if there had been any difference in the outcome of this match The Just would have felt like lady luck was very much against them, the final scoreline probably reflecting the way the match had gone overall.

Man of the match this week goes to Duncan Barr. He has been chapping the door recently for a chance up front and this performance definitely gives the manager a selection headache on Luggsy McMillan’s return from illness next week.