Page 17 - Avonmouth FC v Hanham Athletic 200124

Kaye made a great save to keep Frampton in it. On 47 Stuart Maule was through
for Frampton but Aaron Underwood made a good save, but only a minute later it
was level, the home defence failing to deal with a through ball leaving Freddie
Porter to slot home. On 55 Ruardean were almost back in front, but Ollie Mason’s
fierce shot was just wide with Kaye stranded. Manola Espada tried his luck from
distance forcing Underwood to tip his shot wide. With quarter of an hour left Fin
Jones forced a save from Kaye who almost made a mess of a fairly routine effort.
On 80 the Referee was said to have made a terrible decision to give a penalty to
Frampton for a tackle allegedly outside the box and then sending Dave Matthews
off for the tackle! Espada duly slotted home the resultant kick. But that wasn’t the
end of it, a minute from time Alex Stephens got the ball out of his feet and put in
a great shot for 3-3 and probably the least Hill deserved.
A bonus report now, on Rockleaze Rangers County Cup game against a
stubborn St Nicholas from the Bristol Premier Combination. Rockleaze started
slowly with a much-changed team but it was St Nicholas with the first chance on 5
minutes, but Parker drove the ball high and wide when well-placed for what was
their only real chance of the half. Rockleaze didn’t fare much better although the
managed to break the deadlock on 36 minutes, Fraser Butt broke down the right
flank and superbly squared the ball to Kacper Kalkowski who drove in from 5 yards.
Rockleaze made three changes for the second half which changed the course of
the game but they only managed to spurn chance after chance with Bailey three
times, Webb, Boontam, and Goulden all guilty of missing gilt-edged chances to
make the game safe, but as so often happens a mix up in the home defence
allowed Yohan Rutty-Smith to nip in between Shaw and Dunning to fire into an
empty net and so to penalties to decide the tie. The shoot-out started with a
fantastic array of kicks with the first eight all easily beating the two keepers, but
the ninth by Harding of St Nicholas was brilliantly saved by Dunning, to leave
Marcus Williams to strike into the left of the goal and take Rockleaze into the next
round.
To the final league match with Cheltenham Civil Service’s visit to Wick on a cold
but dry afternoon with both teams positioned at the the wrong end of the table,
three points were much needed by both teams. In what was a largely forgettable
first half, neither keeper was troubled. Wick did have the ball in the net after 8
minutes, but it was ruled offside. Although Wick shaded the possession it didn't
look like scoring a well marshalled Cheltenham defence.
The second half began with more of the same. Cheltenham's best chance of the
game so far came on 60 minutes when a far post header cleared Wick's crossbar
following a corner. Wick made changes reverting to a back three in an attempt to
create up the tempo. The game did open up and Cheltenham also became more
dangerous. On 75 minutes Cheltenham missed a golden opportunity when heading
just wide from close in, and Wick were indebted to Ashton Trott in goal who pulled
off a great double save three minutes later to thwart Cheltenham. As the game
entered its final stages a flick from Wick's Todd Carter set free Louis Short on the
right in a foot race with the Cheltenham defence which Short won and then found
the net with a fierce shot with three minutes left on the clock. With 6 minutes of
added time Cheltenham pressed looking for an equaliser, which gave the home side
a nail-biting finish to the match and some respite at the end but leaving Service
just above the bottom two.