There weren’t many people there when I arrived but it filled up just before kick off as people finished off their pints in the bar. The ground is part of a community centre and there was a small skate park in one corner of the ground – a rival to the play park at Andover New Street’s ground!
Blackfield are looking to get promotion back to the Wessex Premier this season and took the lead after fifteen minutes. A ball was played into the centre of the penalty area and from 2 feet out, the striker calmly placed the ball to the left of the keeper. There was then a short break as the net came away from the crossbar and had to be redone. It was almost 2.0 after 23 minutes when a powerful header from a corner was cleared off the line by a Fawley defender stood by the post.
On 35 minutes, there was another good scoring opportunity for the home team. A player got behind the defence and ran in on goal but hit a shot from the edge of the box and skied it over the bar when he had time to take it into the penalty area and threaten the keeper from closer range. Fawley managed a rare counter attack a couple of minutes later but the Blackfield keeper had kept alert and cleared the ball when it came into his penalty area.
The last five minutes before half time saw Fawley start to press as the tide of possession reversed its flow. Their best chance came after 40 minutes when a break down the left side led to a cross into the centre but the player waiting there decided to hit it first time and put his shot over the bar. Blackfield were still creating chances though and almost doubled their lead when the Fawley keeper decided to play sweeper and ran out of the box to head the ball away. The clearance fell to a Blackfield player but he put his shot wide.
The second half saw Blackfield continuing to press for a second goal but in the 60th minute, against the run of play, Fawley scored an equaliser. The ball was crossed in from the left touchline to the far post to an unmarked player and his low header evaded the keeper’s grasp and ended up in the back of the net. The game then became end to end as Fawley’s confidence grew now they had a goal back. Blackfield pushed players forward looking for a winner that allowed Fawley to counter-attack with a numerical advantage.
In the 78th minute Blackfield regained the lead in this local derby. One of their subs beat his man on the right wing, ran to the goal line and blasted a cross in. It deflected off a player and span in at the near post, leaving the keeper no chance to stop it. I couldn’t see who had got the final touch from my vantage point at the far end but from the reaction of the players, concluded it must have been an own goal.
The game got a bit niggly after the goal with late tackles from both sides and the Fawley bench and supporters on the far side were not happy with some of the decisions against their team. The last minutes of the game saw a good chance for both teams to score.
In the 90th minute Blackfield put an overhead kick narrowly over the bar. In injury time, Fawley had a great chance. Four runners went into the box and a high, deep ball was headed into the centre of the penalty area by an unmarked player. His teammate hit a great shot but a defender managed to get a block in to deflect the ball wide for a corner, which came to nothing.
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