Game 7: East Cowes Vics 0.5 Amesbury Town (WESS1) 25.08.07

Took an early morning ferry to Cowes with Amy for our now regular (well, 2 years in a row!) August trip to the Isle of Wight. After watching the speedboat racing, we wandered over to the chain ferry and headed to the ground via a well earnt rest in the park. Walking through the nearby housing estate, we realised that the noise behind us wasn't one of the Vespa's from the scooter rally but 4 prop planes doing some stunts. We watched them for 5 minutes before continuing to the ground.

On arrival, we headed to the back of the main stand and made ourselves comfortable in the shade. East Cowes had lost their previous game 7.0 at Farnborough while Amesbury had lost 3.2 at Stockbridge so both teams had something to play for.

The first half was an even affair. Amesbury were generally in control but East Cowes made a few chances on the counter attack and were unlucky not to score. Amesbury took the lead with a looping header from the edge of the box after half an hour but the game wasn't a classic. There was a bit of a scare when an East Cowes player collapsed in the box with no-one near him. It looked like he had fainted and the referee passed on specific instructions to the assistant to keep an eye on him. In the end this wasn't necessary as he was substituted but it was a sensible precaution from the ref who had a good game.

The second half saw Amesbury begin to pass the ball better and this made dividends with 3 goals in 7 minutes. The second of the game was scored on 50 minutes when a great crossfield pass split the defence and a shot from the right side of the box beat the keeper.

The third was scored 5 minutes later - a cross from the right looked to be heading into the keeper's arms when one of the East Cowes defenders ran in and got in front of him to head it into an unguarded net. The fourth goal followed 2 minutes later, a cracking shot from the left side of the box flew past the defence and keeper into the back of the net. East Cowes continued to try and get themselves onto the scoresheet but their afternoon was perhaps summed up when one of the players tried to take a shot and only succeeded in kicking his teammate and injuring himself.

Amesbury scored again near the end when a freekick from the edge of the box flew past the keeper, came down from the crossbar and was tapped in from a yard out by an Amesbury player who followed the ball in.


Despite the prowess of their team on the pitch, the behaviour of some of the Amesbury supporters left a lot to be desired - drinking alcohol in the stand, swearing, abusing the referee and to cap it off in the final minutes, one 'charming' young man screaming homophobic abuse from the stand at any East Cowes player in earshot.