It was a beautiful sunny day as I drove up to one of the northern outposts of the Wessex League, Tadley Calleva. I managed to find the ground without too many problems and parked up about 2.40pm. I had a text from Paul to say he would also be joining me but by 3pm (as I was wondering where he had got to) the phone rang. It was Paul – lost in the village having missed the turning for the ground. I gave him some directions just as the game kicked off and hoped he would make it in time to see any goals.
However Warminster had other ideas! On 5 minutes they earnt a freekick on the far side of the penalty area. I was expecting the ball to be crossed high into the box but the opposite happened – a low shot hit towards the near post surprised the keeper as well and Warminster were 1 up. The keeper then launched a tirade at his defenders for not positioning the wall correctly, somehow taking himself out of the equation.
A couple of minutes later Paul arrived – he had been parking the car when he heard the goal go in. His plan to avoid Newbury town centre had worked a little too well as the planned turnoff the A34 didn’t materialise and he had to detour via Whitchurch and back up to Tadley – nightmare!
I hadn’t been too impressed with Warminster when I had seen them at US Portsmouth other than one of their central defenders. They looked a lot sharper today while Tadley looked a pale imitation of the team that had earnt a draw at Amesbury. On 25 minutes they had a good chance from a corner but the header was well saved by the Tadley keeper.
Five minutes later and it was almost 2.0 from another free kick. This time the kick was about 35 yards out in a central position but it was strongly hit with the prevailing wind and smacked off the top of the post with the keeper just watching and praying it wouldn’t go in. He got his wish and the ball was cleared away.
The second half was a similar story of Warminster domination as they started to pass the ball with more confidence. These passing moves opened up a lot of space in the Tadley defence and it was no surprise when Warminster got a second goal after 52 minutes. The ball was played into the centre and the onrushing keeper had little chance when the ball was chipped over him and into the net.
We had noticed a lot of beeps during the first half and the penny finally dropped during the second half as to where this noise was coming from. Each assistant had a bulky wristband on their flag arm and each time they raised their flag, the noise sounded to let the referee know. This system is optional but we found it useful to follow the flow of play and pick up the decisions with our ears.
On 75 minutes the Tadley keeper made another good save to push a Warminster shot out for a corner. The ball was floated to the back of the six yard box and a Warminster player headed it towards goal. It looked like the keeper should save it but the ball deflected off the top of his hands and into the back of the net as he fell backwards.
Paul had been wondering if we would see a Tadley goal attempt during the game. In the last ten minutes they finally managed three decent attempts. The first was a one on one chance to beat the keeper but the shot went wide. The keeper comfortably saved the other two. Warminster continued to press but their final balls were either not good enough to beat the Tadley defence or so good that they evaded both the Tadley defence and the Warminster strike force.
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