HAMWORTHY UNITED 1 LAVERSTOCK & FORD 3
Sydenhams Wessex Cup (3rd Round) Wednesday 25-11-09
Once again the County Ground drainage system came up trumps, making sure that after several days of rain the game still went ahead as planned. After ninety minutes however many must have wished that it had not, as the Hammers turned in a very much under par display than those they have been producing of late. This resulted in brining an end to their run of seven games unbeaten. Simon Brown made a few changes to the team that drew with Moneyfields bringing in new signings Ryan Rule and Jamie Barron to start the game, and Ollie Cherrett also returned from injury. Ollie however had to go off halfway through the first half as the back injury retuned to bother him.
United could not have got off to a better start, and took the lead after five minutes with their first real attack of the game. Stuart Cannie hit a cross from the right which evaded everybody except Greg Horlock at the far post who headed home. The strong gusty wind did not make for good football as both teams struggled to get any sort of rhythm going. Mark Dancer did well to control the ball, but muffed his shot that would have doubled the Hammers lead. Within a minute Laverstock had equalized from a corner. The Visitor’s number nine was found unmarked at the far post, and made no mistake in heading the ball back across Steve Shergold to score. The Salibury based team was eager to play the ball forward as quickly as possible to its very quick front runners. The ball therefore was spending a lot of time in the air, and the Hamworthy players found it very difficult to deal with. The passing game on the deck that United have been doing a lot more of in recent games was missing. This unfortunately made it a very disappointing display to watch.
HT 1-1
The second half continued in very much the same fashion as the first with the visiting front men looking slightly the more dangerous of the two attacks. It was Stuart Cannie who had the best chance of the match, but somehow managed to miss it. He burst through the middle one on one with the opposing keeper, who half charged down Canine’s attempt to go round him. The ball broke kindly for the United player, who now had the goal at his mercy. He had time to either run the ball in, or carefully pick his spot. Unfortunately he did neither and ended up blasting the ball wide. Again the Hammers were to pay dearly for their miss. Laverstock took the lead almost immediately from another United mistake. An innocent looking cross into the six yard box from a set piece was not dealt with. This left the Laverstock man with the simple job of heading his side into the lead. Hamworthy’s sorry tale was complete when another defensive mix up led to a third Laverstock goal to complete a well deserved victory for them. They now have the unenviable task of travelling to the Isle of Wight midweek for the next round. They will play the winners Newport and Cowes whose game was called off. We wish them good luck.
Team: S. Shergold, R. Rule,, R. Jackson, O. Cherrett ( S. Llewelyn) G. Horlock, J.Barron, M. Crow, S. Cannie, M. Dancer, L. Mekchiche ( J. Swann) J. Toghill. Unused Subs: M. Antrobus, S. Browne., K. Yelland