While the FA Cup moved into the second qualifying round today, I decided to make the most of the good weather to pay a visit to Hamworthy Recreation for their match against Blandford United.
I arrived at the ground at good time and parked up outside the Sports and Social club building which had plenty of car parking spaces available. There was a helpful sign to point me in the right direction of the pitch and as I ambled up to the entrance the teams were warming up.
After paying £3 for admission and an excellent programme (including colour photographs!) I headed down to the pitchside to try and escape the biting cold wind that was blowing across the hilltop. Reading through the programme I noticed that Hamworthy were top of the table but are unable to take promotion to the Wessex League as their facilities can not be upgraded to meet the strict criteria. The ground has no floodlights or spectator cover so I was glad to be there on a sunny day!
I was pleasantly surprised by the way the game was played. In the first twenty minutes both teams were looking to get the ball on the ground and pass or run forward. While Hamworthy were more cultured in their approach, they didn't make the most of the set pieces and advanced postions their approach play was winning.
Blandford were capable of causing the home defence some problems and I thought for a moment that they had taken the lead in the 17th minute. The ball was played through at the far end and the shot appeared to beat the keeper and ripple the net. It wasn't until the keeper wandered round his goal to collect the goal that the spectators on the side I was on realised that the shot had gone wide!
A minute later Blandford came close again to scoring. The ball was crossed into the middle and a header flew just wide of the same post. The Hamworthy defence were cross-examining each other and it took a few words from their captain to calm things down.
There were between 15 and 20 people watching the game until the 20th minute. I heard a lot of voices to my left and saw a crowd of suited and booted wedding guests appear at the back of the hall for the photographs. I'm not sure what the protocol for headcount in such circumstances is but as they hadn't paid I decided not to include them!
Hamworthy continued to press through the middle and the wings but the Blandford defence managed to protect their keeper until the 45th minute when a shot finally was hit on target. The keeper made a good save to take us to halftime with no goals.
I made a quick exit to the car as my phone battery had gone from fully charged to no charge seemingly in the space of an hour. A quick top up from the car battery while I listened to the half time reports on Radio Wiltshire did the trick! I was surprised to hear that Salisbury were 2.1 down at Sholing in the FA Cup despite taking the lead.
Hamworthy started the second half as they had ended the first, dominating possession but lacking the final touch in front of goal. The number of chances that they created but finished with a shot or header over the bar was steadily increasing and I began to wonder if there would be any goals in the match.
Blandford were restricted to counter attacks but they managed to create a good chance moments after their keeper pulled off a good save from a Hamworthy shot. The ball was played quickly upfield and their number 10 dribbled into the area and fired a shot well wide. It looked like the tackle coming in from his left put him off his stride at the crucial moment.
The Hamworthy manager changed his attacking options with two subs and within 8 minutes they took the lead. A Hamworthy player received the ball in a central area well outside the box and ran forward. He wasn't challenged so unleashed a strong shot that flew into the bottom left corner of the net before the keeper could move.
Three minutes later and it was game over. The ball was played towards two opposing players in the penalty area. The defender jumped just behind the Hamworthy player and nudged him slightly as both players tried to reach the ball. This didn't look to be anything other than a normal challenge but the referee decided that it warranted a penalty.
The visiting players harrangued the referee for his decision and it appeared that one of them took the verbal protests too far for his liking as the red card was shown to a blue shirted player. He walked off the pitch and booted the dugout moments before the penalty was taken. The keeper guessed one way, the penalty taker chose the other way and the ball nestled into the back of the net.
Hamworthy tried to exploit the man advantage to extend their lead. The best effort came from the vision of one of their players by the right touchline. He decided to launch a long cross come chip that went over the visiting keeper but bounced half a yard wide of the post before going out for a goalkick.
Blandford didn't give up and to their credit continued to play counter-attacking football. They managed to get one of their players through on the right side but he was forced wide and only had one team mate to aim for who was surrounded by four green shirts. He decided not to take a shot and try and cross the ball to his team mate but it was easily cleared.
With three minutes to go, a clever move found a Blandford player unmarked in the area who shot past the keeper's acrobatic dive. Sadly for him, the assistant already had his flag up for offside.
Hamworthy almost made it 3.0 in the last minute. As the Blandford defence pushed up, the Hamworthy number 2 played the ball forward through their line and ran onto it himself. His through ball took him into the area but he took his shot early and watched it sail well wide.
I got back to the car to get the FA Cup scores and discovered on Twitter that Salisbury had managed to get a goal back so another FA Cup replay at the Ray Mac is scheduled for Tuesday night.
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