For this Bank Holiday, I decided to stay local as the Wessex League fixtures offered a rare opportunity to complete a treble with an early kick off at Laverstock, an afternoon kick off at Stockbridge and an evening match at Bemerton.
I got to Laverstock's ground earlier than normal as I wanted to give myself a good chance of getting one of their excellent programmes. There were a lot of parked cars already and as I arrived at the turnstile I noticed that there were only two programmes left!
The match looked to have attracted a number of travellers judging from the number of conversations in exotic accents I heard while watching the teams warm up. The official attendance was 92 which is the best of the season so far at the Dell.
The match kicked off on-time at 11am and within five minutes of kicking down the slope Laverstock took the lead. They had a chance in the 3rd minute when a header from a corner went over the bar but went one better in the 5th minute when the referee awarded a penalty for what looked like a shove in the back.
Jamie Waters stepped up and hit the ball to the left side of the goal while the keeper dived the other way.
Fawley had their first decent attempt on goal in the 10th minute when a goal bound shot was tipped wide by Kauppinen in the Laverstock goal. Laverstock were unlucky not to extend the lead in the 12th minute following a good run down the left wing. The ball was crossed into the area and the header was hit back towards the left as the keeper moved the other way, only to fall wide of the post.
Laverstock were dominating the play and it took a goal mouth clearance by a Fawley defender in the 21st minute to stop them scoring again. Fawley weren't creating much up front and when they won a freekick in a decent position the chance was wasted as the ball was smashed into the Laverstock wall and cleared.
For all of Laverstock's dominance, they were also guilty of wasting chances. Two corners in quick succession found an unmarked Laverstock head but on both occasions the ball flew over the crossbar. Fawley should have made the most of this just before half-time when another freekick was walloped into the wall and deflected wide for a corner. When the ball came in the keeper misjudged the flight but it was too high for a Fawley player to reach it.
Fawley made a much better start to the second half. In the 49th minute they were very unlucky not to equalise with a point blank sliding shot that was hit directly at the Laverstock keeper as he ran across the goal and bounced away.
Laverstock had another scare from a corner four minutes later. The ball was played into the area and looked like it had started a game of pinball as it bounced around from player to player but Fawley were unable to get it in position to hit a shot on goal.
Laverstock were conceding corners on a regular basis as Fawley pushed forward and the momentum of the game seemed to be with the visitors. The attacking play of the first half had broken down and the ball spent little time at the top end of the pitch. The only chance of note was a freekick in the 67th minute that the Fawley keeper did well to tip over the bar.
The Laverstock keeper had to be alert in the 68th minute to preserve the lead. One of the Fawley players received the ball on the edge of the area and ran in on goal. As the keeper prepared himself for the shot, one of his defenders managed to get back and hustle the attacker into playing an early shot that the keeper did well to tip away.
Fawley continued to press, missing a sitter in the 69th minute from a corner when the ball was headed down and then shot over the bar. Two minutes later and the post came to Laverstock's rescue while their defence waved their arms and appealed for an offside decision that wasn't given. They also had a penalty shout of their own for what appeared to be a handball in the area but the referee didn't agree with their appeals.
Laverstock seemed to have slipped back into the same pattern of play that had lead to their defeat against Bournemouth earlier in the season. Instead of playing the ball through midfield and passing their way up the pitch they chose to put 9 men behind the ball and resort to long ball clearances. Often these clearances didn't give the strikers any chance to collect the ball.
With time running out Laverstock finally put a decent move together. The ball was played down the left wing and passed back to a midfielder. As he cut into the box a Fawley defender brought him down so the referee blew his whistle and pointed to the spot.
Waters was given the responsibility and took a good penalty to give Laverstock a 2.0 win.
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