SDL Premier Upton Athletic V Watcombe Wanderers 7/09/2013

[Dave]

SDL Premier Upton Athletic V Watcombe Wanderers 7/09/2013

After checking to see what games were on today, this fixture looked one of those not to miss games. the weather in the Bay is far better than what was forecast a few days ago, so hopefully the rain will stay away.

match report and match photos to follow later.

[Dave]

Final Score Upton 0 Watcombe 1

Firstly many thanks to Upton’s manager and his assistant for they very warm welcome and help with the team players names. Also nice to finally meet Phil Lloyd and have a good chat with him. Not been to watch a game at Cricketfield road for a good while and nothing has changed very much and the pitch still has that very uphill slope that gets worse when you get to the edge of the penalty area. Upton would dearly love to acquire the lease of the ground, but that may never happen as the cricket club do not seem all that keen on letting that happen. Its shame really as the ground as it is, would never be up to standard for the Peninsula League.

On to the match and it was very competitive as you would expect for such a clash between Upton and Watcombe and the only thing that was missing was goals goals goals. There were a good number of goal efforts by both sides and Upton have Darren Bastow to thank for being in the right place not once but twice, to stop goal bound shots going over the line.

Neither team were ever on top during the first half and for the first ten minutes or so, there was hardly any goal mouth action. Upton’s Mike Turner did take one shot from the edge of the Watcombe box early on, but the ball sailed high over the goal post.

Watcombe nearly took the lead when Chris Jackson in goal for Upton dropped what looked like an easy catch and Sean Rinch took a first time shot that thankfully for Chris Jackson got blocked on the line.

Watcombe’s next best chance came when Sean Rinch took another shot close in on goal and Chris Jackson made a fine blocking reaction save that saw the ball go over the crossbar and out for a corner. The ball from the corner came into the Upton box and that man Sean Rinch rose the highest and headed the ball and it would have gone in just inside the right hand post, had Daren Bastow not been there to stop the ball crossing the line.

Upton came close to scoring after a fine strong run by Ryan Hare, he was so strong on the ball holding of two challenges from Watcombe players and as he got into the box he hit a good hard low shot. Scott Corderoy in goal for Watcombe did well to get dive down low to his left to get a hand on the ball to push it out for a corner.

Up the other end and Peter Summerfield for Watcombe hit a fine right foot shot from all of 25 yards that only just cleared the crossbar. Just after that effort Dan Harvey hit a good shot from the edge of the box that Chris Jackson did well to tip over his crossbar.

Sean Rinch for Watcombe went on a nice run but was brought down on the edge of the box by Ryan Hare who got booked for the foul. The free kick was taken by Sean who hit a good shot that had the keeper beaten but not that man Darren Bastow who once again got his body in the way to stop what would have been a certain goal.

The ref blew up for halftime and the Upton players made the long trek back to the dressing room, while the Watcombe players decided to stay out on the pitch.

The first real effort of goal of the second half was a 35 yard power shot by Upton’s Jake White that only just went past the left hand post. Watcombe for me were starting to get on top a bit, not much but enough for me to think they would be the team that got the first goal of the match. Their number 12(sorry do not have his name) took a shot from the edge of the area that according to the ref, Chris Jackson got a hand too. From the resulting corner the ball was fired wastefully into the side netting.

The game was starting to become and end to end affair and Upton’s Scott Davies shot looked from my angle to be going in, but then a Watcombe defender managed to get his head on the ball and clear the ball out of the danger area.

Robert Bowker took a free kick for Upton from about 20 yards out that only just went wide of the right hand post. Then Ryan Hare went on a very good run for Upton and hit a good shot from the edge of the box that stung Scott Corduroys hands as he beat the ball out.

With Upton pushing up looking for a goal, Watcombe were able to create a number of good chances as they played the ball out wide to the left hand side of the pitch, from one such more the ball was in the box and the ref blew up and pointed to the spot. I did no see myself what the ref must have seen and I was told after the match he gave the spot kick for a push in the box. Dan Harvey took the spot kick with his right foot hitting the ball low into the right hand corner of the goal.

Upton tried hard to get back on level terms and came so close when Ryan Litre? poked a lose ball goal ward from close in only to see it get blocked on the line. That was it and I think on the number of chances created etc, Watcombe maybe just deserved to win.

Despite the lack of goals it was a good entertaining game to watch and both sides have a number of very good players and both sides should do well in the league this season.

[Dave]

Looking through the 400 photos I took yesterday, I think the pictures below might be the push in the box the ref gave a penalty for. You can clearly see that Steven Northcott is not pushing the Watcombe player. The Watcombe player does hit the deck and the last pictures shows another Watcombe player with his hand up making an appeal to the ref.