Game 7: Chalke Valley 2.4 Amesbury Town (Sport4Salisbury Cup 3rd/4th playoff) 31.07.10

This is the second year of the Sport 4 Salisbury Cup at Chalke Valley's ground and I decided to take the opportunity to visit a new ground and take in two matches involving local teams.

In last week's semi-finals, Chalke Valley lost 2.1 to Shrewton United while Amesbury Town were hammered 7.0 by Bemerton Heath Harlequins. Chalke Valley have been promoted to the Wiltshire Premier League this season and will be playing Amesbury's reserve team in that league.

The ground was easy to find despite the sat-nav wanting to direct me down narrow country roads rather than sticking to the main road at times. The setting is very picturesque with rolling hills in one direction and a steep hillside covered in fields in the other. The combine harvesters and tractors started harvesting just before the game kicked off at 1.30pm to provide the soundtrack to an exciting game.

Amesbury were gifted a goal with 4 minutes on the clock when a misplaced pass on the edge of the Chalke Valley area found one of their players. He took the ball on and played a low cross into the area. The keeper missed the ball, which allowed an Amesbury player to run in at the far post and score from close range.

Chalke Valley equalised after 20 minutes when Amesbury's defence gave the ball away and allowed a Chalke Valley player a free run into the box. His shot was well placed to beat the Amesbury keeper who had been left exposed by the mistake.

Amesbury retook the lead 3 minutes later. They took the ball down the right side, where a player delayed his cross before delivering an excellent ball to an unmarked team mate on the edge of the area. He lashed a volley past the keeper's acrobatic dive and into the net.

The weather was sunny but overcast, with some strong gusts of winds and at one point, the gusts were strong enough to send one of the dugouts flying backwards as it was unoccupied by subs or management.

Chalke Valley scored another equaliser in the 31st minute thanks to more poor defending. The ball was played across to the left of the area to find an unmarked Chalke Valley player and he hit a good shot across the keeper and in.

The second half began in a similar fashion as Amesbury scored in the first minute of the half from an unmarked header. This time Chalke Valley were unable to find an equaliser before Amesbury extended their lead in the 57th minute. Amesbury broke through the centre and one of their strikers bustled his way past a defender before chipping the onrushing Chalke Valley keeper.

That was the end of the scoring but Amesbury were unlucky not to extend their lead in the 85th minute when they hit the post with a shot.