Salisbury FC Dev 4 v 2 Hamworthy Utd.
The Dev made it back to back wins in the league to go level on points at the top of the Hants Combination Premier league table.
The Whites came out of the starting blocks like a rocket in this game played at Tidworth on the pristine 4G surface. Almost constant possession and pressure was only occasionally interrupted by the visitors. It came as no surprise when the Whites won a free kick 30 yards from goal there was only ever going to be one taker. This was Watterson party piece range. What happened next could have been an action replay from probably 4-5 games last season. The shot went up and over the wall with power, bend and a wicked dip that results in the ball bouncing in front of the keeper, and invariably they end up in the net, as this one did on 7 minutes to give the Whites the early break through.
Only two minutes later flying left back Nathaniel David cut inside towards the centre circle and threaded through the perfect pass to see Watterson race away to round the keeper and slot home his and the whites 2nd, and we were only on 9 minutes played.
If the truth is told the home side should have been five or six up in this game, 16 year old striker Watterson should have bagged twice as many as he did in this game. Others as well squandered chances to put this game to bed inside the opening half an hour, but we didn’t. And as we all know 2 v 0 can be a dangerous lead to have.
And by the half hour mark Hamworthy started to grow and get into the game a bit more, possibly now recovered from the raging onslaught from the 1st whistle and the fact Salisbury had not scored for the last 20 minutes probably gave them hope. On the 29th Minute the Dorset side forced a corner which eventually was headed in giving Konrad in the home goal no chance. Now at 2-1 with still an hour to go the visitors understandably had new found belief.
However, that lasted just 5 minutes before Sam Butt restored the Whites two goal lead. Breaking down the right wing Butt found himself 25 yards out from the goal line and around 5 yards in from the touchline. He then struck what was either a poorly executed cross, or a worldy of a shot. My opinion is the former over the latter, but he understandably claimed it was a shot and he ‘really did mean it’, and it did resemble a shot as it flew the 30 yards or so out of the reach of any of his incoming team mates, and the young visiting keeper to fly right into the far top corner thus restoring the 2 goal advantage for Salisbury.
Time to relax, get to half time and reset? No not a chance just 5 minutes later and 5 before that half time break, Hamworthy got 1 back through a free kick to take it back to a single goal between the two sides.
The second half was a more even tussle, however the visitors didn’t really threaten the Whites stopper Szymaniak’s goal. In the midfield the game was quite even during the 2nd period, the final third action was mostly in front of the visitors goal, but with the slightest of leads there is always a chance of the visitors getting level, and they showed a determination to do so, but defensively the Whites stood solid.
On 75 minutes Ruben Smith pounced to ease the nerves, his deflected shot beat the keeper to restore a 2 goal lead. You could just see the big sigh of relief throughout the side and the smiles and free flowing football that comes with that returned.
The Whites then comfortably saw out the end to claim all 3 points and move up to 2nd in the table going into Lockdown v2.
My MOTM goes to Owen Davis, although had Watterson taken half his chances the match ball would have gone home with him no doubt.
Before Lockdown kicks in on Thursday the Dev are now visiting Gosport Borough’s Privitt Park PO12 3SX on Wed night for a 7:30 Kick off to take on their Development squad in a friendly. The ground will be open to spectators so if you want to squeeze in one last game before 4 weeks hibernation this is the final chance.
