BOURNEMOUTH FA (SATURDAY) LEAGUE DIVISION 1
SATURDAY 1ST MARCH 2008
VERWOOD TOWN RESERVES 3 - HAMWORTHY REC 2

Team
1. Colin Randall
2. John Homer
3. Will Cobley
4. Gary Martin
5. Adam Richmond
6. Graham Cole
7. Brian Quilter
8. Steve Reeves
9. James Murray
10. Matt Newbury
11. Pete Hunt

12. Karl Foster (for Steve Reeves 45 mins)
13. Lee Pidgley (for Brian Quilter 45 mins)
14. Carl Smalley (for Matt Newbury 75 mins)

Report

An important win, in what was a close game. Yet again we were missing a few players which caused the Management to make a couple of “inspired” decisions! Starting 4-4-2 with James Murray playing up front did for the first 15 minutes look like it could go wrong as we were being overrun in midfield, due to their numeric advantage and their movement off the ball. However we looked dangerous on the break and soon after this onslaught we took the lead when Matt Newbury was fouled in the area and James netted from the spot. Interesting here that Matt did not go down from the challenge and the ref saw the contact and bravely awarded the spot kick.

There after for the remainder of the first half it was fairly even, although we were making the clearer chances.

Management decision at half time was to keep the formation as was, although we had to change 2 personnel through injuries, with the impressive Brian Quilter coming off with a groin injury and Stevie Reeves with a hamstring pull. Karl Foster and Lee Pidgley replaced them with Pete Hunt moving to the centre of midfield.

The 2nd half saw Hamworthy come at us with all guns blazing, but we held firm with the whole of the back 4 putting in excellent performances. Against the run of play though we netted our second. A break up the left saw Lee crossing to James whose shot was saved. Matt following up saw his shot hit the full back on the line but he made no doubt with the rebound.

Tactical change was then made to change to a 4-5-1 formation although this almost became a back nine! We went too deep and allowed Hamworthy to press us back, however they didn’t make any clear chances and on the break we had 2 or 3 golden opportunities to extend our lead. Their pressure did eventually pay off and they scored through a deflected shot off Gary Martin. Colin had the tame shot easily covered but Gary’s intervention sent it the other way.

Still 20 minutes to go and more of the same. We substituted the lone striker Matt with young Carl Smalley whose pace immediately caused problems. Five minutes later we broke with Carl outpacing his marker up the right. Lee had bust a gut to get in the middle and was unmarked but Carl’s shot / cross flew over their keepers head to put us 3-1 up. With seven minutes to go, they pulled another back but we held on firm to acquire a welcome 3 points.

Report submitted by Neville Munson