HAMWORTHY UNITED 3 TOTTON & ELING 1
May 2nd, 2013Sydenhams Premier League (Tuesday 23-04-13)
Hamworthy were still harbouring hopes of a top ten finish as they welcomed a Totton & Eling Team for their penultimate League game. For them to achieve this, a win was crucial, with both teams positioned in a tight packed mid-table. The Totton team was short of several regulars, and so the Hammers knew that they had to take full advantage of the situation.
The first half was generally scrappy with neither goalkeeper being seriously tested. If anything, the Totton approach play seemed to be the more fluent. For the Hammers some promising individual ball control in front of goal was let down by poor finishing. Adam Tong used his feet well to block out a few Totton goal attempts, and showed good handling from corners, although the understanding with his defence was not always perfect. Hamworthy gave Totton a scare on the half hour when what at first seemed a poor free kick by Ashley Staines ended up heading just below the bar. The Totton keeper Matt Frederick elected to punch as Carl Bradley charged in, and in doing so clearly felt the full force of the impact. It was Totton who opened the scoring about ten minutes before Half Time, a lead they were to hold onto until the break. Terry Cox played a cheeky ball to the right of the goal and Dan Fox was on hand to squeeze the ball into the net just inside the post. This was certainly not part of Hamworthy’s script, and it would surely bode for an interesting half time team talk by Simon Browne.
Half Time 0-1
Now attacking their favourite Irvin Brown End, Hamworthy had clearly been fired up to turn the game around. However, things got off to a bad start when Ashley Staines had to be stretchered off after a challenge from Adam Lowther who was booked for the offence. Hamworthy then started to dominate the game, and were awarded several free kicks in promising positions, but they seemed destined not to score. So it was with great relief to their supporters when in the sixty-eighth minute Carl Bradley at last found the net with a far post header from a corner by Paddy Hester. In the eighty-eighth minute of normal time, a corner from Stefan Penny was met with a Greg Horlock bullet header to the left of the goal to put the Hammers in front. In the fourth minute of time added on there was yet another Hamworthy goal of quality. Carl Bradley back-headed the ball to Lee Chuddy, who was found running down the left wing. He took it to the bye line before laying back a superbly measured pass for Sam Pekun to finish. In addition to Adam Lowther, Totton’s Richard Bridle (bad challenge) and Dan Fox (deliberate handball) found their way into Mr Gillespie’s book. Hamworthy’s Antony Carlile was also booked for dissent. This was a great late show by United which sets them up nicely for their last game of the season at Fareham.
Full Time 3-1
Team; A Tong, S Penny, A Staines (S Pekun), G Horlock, A Ayling, S Lanahan, R Murray (c), P Hester, J Shovelton (L Chuddy), C Bradley, A Carlile

