PRE-SEASON FRIENDLY
WEDNESDAY 5TH AUGUST 2009
VERWOOD TOWN 3 SWANAGE TOWN & HERSTON

Wednesday night and our first home fixture of this season. A fantastic committee joint effort had gone into making everything ship shape. Unfortunately Sheila Leigh's graffiti expertise had to be erased and it was left to husband Dave to apply thick black Hammerite covering the colourful scene.

Swanage Town & Herston came with a reputation of a no nonsense team and one that had a very physical approach. Their reputation was upheld. Within a couple of minutes of the kick off both Dyer and Evans had had an opportunity to measure the length of the grass on our pitch.

It was a quick game and despite the no nonsense approach Swanage Town & Herston played some good football. Arnold and Anderton forged a good partnership in the middle of the park.

Mark Jamieson put us in front with only ten minutes gone with a low shot and then hit the foot of the post with another sterling effort.

Newbery and Lynch combined to free up Jamieson but Jamieson bit the dust as a brisk tackle robbed him of the ball.

Homer skipped a sliding tackle and a dipping cross was hammered goalwards. Dyer's effort should have been worth a goal but the keeper made a great save.

Arnold was enjoying himself in the rough and tumble and the feisty Anderton was told by the ref to come out of his corner gloves up and to keep it clean.

Newbery threaded his way through a tight defence and a low shot beat the keeper to make it 2-0.

Swanage Town & Herston whipped up the pace in the closing minutes and Fawcett had to make a double save to keep the half time score at 2-0.

Swanage Town & Herston came out of the traps with pace and vigour. Lynch was floored when challenging for a header but Evans nipped in to clear the loose ball from the area.

On came Lanahan a quick interchange with Haskell and a chance shot was well saved.

Haskell was getting more into the thick of things and should have scored but wanted extra touches when it would have been easier to hit the ball first time.

Elysee and Murray were kept busy but we had a solid back four performance at this stage and didn't look as if we would be threatened.

Half way through the half a gap appeared in the Swanage defence. In swept Lanahan to coolly place the ball past the keeper. 3-0.

We became a bit complacent. Suddenly we had to scramble as Swanage Town & Herston got control. Arnold and Newbery tried hard to close down the middle and Evans did a cracking job in support of the very much under fire Lynch.

Fawcett was busy and we weathered the onslaught reasonably well. Swanage Town & Herston efforts were rewarded when we allowed a ball to creep through and this time Fawcett couldn't do anything to prevent the score line adjustment. 3-1.

Swanage Town & Herston went for another. We were pushed back and relied on the break to threaten our visitor's goal.

5 minutes to go though we cracked at the back and a good goal followed. 3-2.

It was a great finish as both teams went for another goal. A couple of close calls at each end kept the game interesting but the score line in the paper the following morning read .....

VERWOOD 3 SWANAGE & HERSTON 2