DORSET SENIOR CUP - FIRST ROUND
TUESDAY 8TH OCTOBER 2024
VERWOOD TOWN 1 HAMWORTHY UNITED 6

A good 30 minutes and then an inexplicable 60 !!

Ham U were out of the blocks first, testing Monk and Fletcher. Retaliation was swift and Grzybowski had the keeper stretching to turn an angled shot round the post.

The game flowed. Reasonable passing accuracy was on display despite a very wet pitch and periodic downpours.

Fletcher almost had his name on the score sheet with a 25 yarder but the keeper had good hands keeping the game at level pegging half way through the half.

Then the first sign of a dip in performance came on 22 minutes. A free run on HU’s right finished with a cross landing in the 6 yard box. A scramble to clear was unsuccessful and a toe poke on the line gave HU the lead. 0-1

6 minutes later a carbon copy down their right, an unmarked player in the box stooped to nod the ball past Mitchell for HU’s second. 0-2.

We had no answers up to the whistle, and went in at half time the wrong end of the score line.

Half Time 0-2.

Complacency was the reward for a 15 minute break. 29 seconds gone and we gave away a corner. Mitchell clawed the ball away from under the bar. Ferguson made sure of the clearance with a high ball out of the area.

7 minutes later 0-3, as we gave away ground and allowed a rampant HU space and room to have a free run on goal.

10 gone and we gave away a corner. 0-4, no challenge.

15 gone .. Ryan Hamm gave a brief hope of a recovery with a goal from a right flank cross. 1-4.

Substitutions were made a couple of minutes later…. Kerr on for Buggey, Rodriguez fort Monk, Knott for Whitelaw

On 24 the last substitutions of the night…McGinty on for Pope, Mitchell O on for Fletcher

Unfortunately the changes didn’t influence the score line nor performance so hopes of a recovery went flat as HU stepped up pace and we lacked bite to match their efforts. 1-5 , two minutes after the Hamm goal and then 1-6 with 4 minutes left of the game.

It could have been worse but last ditch tackling from John & Ferguson and saves by Mitchell prevented a double figure ‘against’..

Result 1-6