GOATACRE chairman Pete Jones admitted he was preparing to provide a shoulder to cry on before his side pulled off a superb turnaround to move one match away from Lord’s in the National Village Cup.

The Goats were facing up to an ignominious exit from the competition when they found themselves toiling at 23-5 in their rearranged quarter-final clash with Cornwall outfit Roche yesterday.

But Jones’ fears were soon alleviated as Ed Wilkins’ men staged an almighty comeback.

Tail-enders Matt House (66*) and Dan Wiseman (40*) starred as Goatacre, the winners of the competition in 1988 and 1990, recovered to post 231-9 before bowling out their opponents for 133.

“I was walking around selling raffle tickets during the game and when I looked at the scoreboard and saw 23-5, I thought ‘well that’s it. The competition is over for us’,” said Jones.

“But then, after some great performances from the team, they managed to turn it around.

“There was a fantastic atmosphere at the club after the game, as you could imagine.

“There was a lot to celebrate and a lot of the members of the team were there pretty late for a Sunday evening.

“I’ve certainly never seen a comeback like that.

“We were swapping stories after the game with people that have been with the club for even longer than I have and nobody could recollect a turnaround of that magnitude.”

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