HAMWORTHY UNITED 1 CHRISTCHURCH 2
Christchurch had never beaten the Hammers before today’s game and for the first twenty five minutes of this game another United win looked on the cards. Then suddenly everything that could go wrong went wrong starting with a sloppy Christchurch equaliser.
Hamworthy opened the stronger of the two teams and soon took an early lead through Jack Swann scoring after only six minutes. A run and shot by Ryan Dovell saw the Christchurch Keeper fail to hold the ball, and this left the Hammer’s striker who had followed up a simple tap in to score. Hamworthy continued to have the better of things restricting Christchurch to the odd breakaway, and from one of these they gained a corner from which they equalised. Hamworthy United defence who normally defend well from set pieces on this occasion were found wanting. The cross was met by a looping header that bounced back into play off the crossbar. Steve Gilbert’s attempted headed clearance also bounced on the cross bar before dropping back for Mark Burrows to equalise with a simple header. The goal lifted the Christchurch team, and play was a lot more even after that with the score remaining at 1-1 at the break.
Jack Swann failed to make it back onto the field after the restart following a first half injury, and was replaced by Ryan Middleton. Christchurch were now playing with a lot more confidence and were unlucky not to have taken the lead when they hit a great strike that struck the underside of the bar, with Martin Peters well beaten. The Visitors were now on top and they took the lead after a quick break found Paul Rideout unmarked on the edge of the box. The Christchurch man took full advantage of the time allowed to bury his shot past Martin Peters and take the lead. Hamworthy’s luck got worse when Warren Byerley also limped off injured leaving the Hammers with no recognised striker, and having to make positional changes to compensate. United were left with only nine players on the field when two players were shown red cards as frustration and lack of composure led to their dismissal shortly before the end. First Nathan Walker walked for a second yellow following a tussle to recover the ball from an opposing player, and then fellow central defender Steve Gilbert was sent off for swearing.
Team: M. Peters, M. Hubbard, M. Grimason, S. Gilbert. N. Walker, C. Mutch, S. Legg ( B. Williams), R. Dovell, J. Swann (R.Middleton), W. Byerley (G. Horlock), R. Jackson.