PICKFORD CUP
SATURDAY 18TH OCTOBER 2008
PENNINGTON ST MARKS 2 VERWOOD TOWN 0

Team

1. Colin Randall
2. Jon Homer
3. Conor Moore
4. Ben Giles
5. Graham Cole
6. Shaun Morrison
7. Matt James
8. Matt Newbury
9. Karl Foster
10. Tristan Dorey
11. Ben Britnall
12. Josh Goncalves (for S. Morrison 45 mins)

Report

Another week where injuries, work commitments and the 1st team having to take players left me taking the bare bones of a squad down to a tough fixture in the Pickford Cup.

Trying to make the best of what was available, left me selecting players for positions and responsibilities that they were not used to and in the end this told, but in truth I had no options.

Let us hope that in future weeks I have more of my normal squad to select from!

The game was quite close and equally shared in the first half. They were putting in some strong challenges the majority of which were given as fouls, but it wasn't until the 30th minute that the referee decided to show a yellow card and give my youngsters some protection. Tristan Dorey playing on the left was the attention of most of their lunges, primarily as he was causing them loads of problems. However, neither side carved out really clear cut chances.

We started the 2nd half well but after 5 minutes conceded another highly dubious penalty when a shot goal bound hit Jon Homer and the Ref adjudged it was handball. Jon had his arms down by his side and it appeared to strike his chest. Unfortunately though you have to accept these decisions and hope it equals out by the end of the season! They scored from the penalty (just!) however again we showed great character by coming straight back at them. We had a few chances the best one falling to Karl Foster but from 8 yards the goalie smothered the ball out for a corner. With a couple of minutes left we conceded the second goal and that was game over.

Very disappointing but yet again I can't ask for anymore from the players.



Report submitted by Neville Munson