I decided to spend the morning at the East Somerset Railway before driving the short distance to Shepton Mallet's ground.
The match was advertised as a 2pm kick off in the Non League Paper and on the League's website. When I arrived at 1.20 I was surprised to see a couple of cars driving away from the ground. The reason soon became clear - a board outside the ground showing a kick off time of 3pm!
After listening to the radio commentary for a while, I wandered over to the entrance and paid for admission and a programme. I had had a look at some pictures of the ground online but it soon became clear that there have been some recent changes. A new stretch of covered terracing has been built along the opposite side to the main stand.A small memorial stand to a former player who recently passed away has been erected behind one of the goals.
Both teams had an opportunity to score in the first ten minutes. Melksham volleyed the ball wide from a cross after two minutes and a Shepton Mallet player dribbled round the defence before shooting over the bar in the seventh minute.
Melksham took the lead in the 10th minute after winning a free kick on the edge of the penalty area in a central position. When the kick was taken, the man on the edge of the wall jumped high only to see the ball curl low past where he was stood and past the keeper's outstretched boot.
Shepton were under a lot of pressure but managed to break away in the 21st minute following a Melksham corner. The goalkeeper stood his ground in the area and managed to save the ball with his feet when the home player took a shot.
Melksham thought they had scored again after 37 minutes but the goal was chalked off for a foul the referee had spotted during the build up.
They came even closer a minute later when one of their players went through one on one with the keeper only to present too much of the ball to him. The keeper stopped the ball with one hand and gathered the ball under his body.
The referee missed a blatant foul in the last minute of the half that allowed Melksham to double their lead. The ball was floated in from a corner and the keeper went up to make what should have been a routine save. Instead, he ended up spilling the ball as a Melksham player had grabbed the back of his shoulder.
The referee couldn't see the contact and waved play on, allowing a Melksham player to whack the ball into the roof of the net. To rub salt into this wound, one of the Shepton players was booked for protesting.
Melksham made the game safe in the 49th minute with a superb floated shot from the left that flew over the keeper and into the back of the net. The keeper had no chance to stop the shot but did manage to keep out a couple of later efforts with some spectacular dives.
The ball was spending most of its time in the Shepton half and it was not a surprise when they scored a fourth goal in the 70th minute. The ball was crossed to the near post and a glancing header from close range powered the ball in between the keeper and the post.
Shepton had to clear the ball off the goalline in the 85th minute and had some more fortune three minutes later after they conceded a penalty for a handball in the box. A Melksham player took a slow, considered run up before hitting the ball into the left hand post and wide as the keeper dived in the opposite direction.
In the final minute of injury time Shepton won a freekick after a player was brought down by two opponents. The ball was hit superbly and curved over the ball and past the keeper before crashing into the top corner to give Shepton a consolation goal.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment