The original plan for this evening was to head over to Laverstock with Andy and Alan to watch the local derby against Downton in the Wessex League Cup. However the game got moved to Wednesday evening which meant Andy would be in Austria and I would be about to get on a plane to the USA, so we decided on another visit to Bemerton.
Alan got stuck on the motorway so we went straight to the ground and parked up at 7.30. As we got there, 2 blokes were walking away from the ground and providing directions on a mobile phone. We thought that it was unlikely to be another Aldermaston fan given their average attendance of 15 and it turned out to be the team minibus as it arrived 10 minutes later. This meant that the game kicked off at 8.15, half an hour later than advertised.
With Aldermaston rooted to the bottom of Wessex 1, we anticipated a goal feast - Alan predicted 7.2 to Bemerton. While Aldermaston played well in patches, they were not able to finish any of the handful of chances they created. Indeed their best chances came when the Bemerton keeper kicked the ball to them from free kicks and had to rush back to protect the goal, only to see the shots sailing wide.
Bemerton almost scored after 30 seconds and dominated play. Their passing and movement was far superior to Aldermaston and it was no surprise that they scored 6 - indeed they should have scored more as they took their time with chances and almost wanted to play the perfect ball when a direct "shoot on sight" attitude would have lead to at least another couple of goals.
The scoring went as follows:
13 min - cross from the right headed past the keeper.
29 min - shot from close range, with a headed goal disallowed for offside in between.
48 min - a quick turn and shot from the middle of penalty area to the right side of the keeper
77 min - free kick on the left passed into the centre and smashed in
At this point, Aldermaston brought on a young goal keeper.
81 min - two players went sliding in on a Bemerton striker at the left of the box, bringing him down for a penalty which was duly converted.
Not to be outdone on the substitutions, Bemerton brought on player-manager Ian Chalk, much to Alan's delight as he's always been a big fan of Chalky.
82 min - Chalky takes the ball down in the penalty area, advances and chips the keeper less than a minute after coming on. Class finish.
Aldermaston went down to ten men after this, a late sliding tackle earning a defender a second yellow card. Bemerton were unable to add to their goal tally for the evening but thoroughly deserved the win.
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