Tuesday January 28th SYDENHAMS FOOTBALL LEAGUE (WESSEX) Premier Division
COWES SPORTS 1(1) FAREHAM TOWN 4(1)
played at Westwood Park Attendance – 83
Referee:- ROBERT WALCZAK Assistants – Andy Jones + Jamie Saltzer
ANOTHER HOME DEFEAT HEIGHTENS RELEGATION THREAT
A mid week fixture against Fareham Town at Westwood Park gave the Yachtsmen the chance to banish the home defeat against Stoneham a few days earlier.
Fin Phillips and Tom Dye replaced Mitch Ricketts and Morgan Perrin in the starting XI as Cowes looked to end a run of defeats.
Fin Phillips sent a ball into the Fareham box that Michael McEnery and their keeper both challenged for with their keeper coming out on top. Lewis Stockford then had a long range effort that went wide.Another excellent pass from Fin Phillips this time saw Michael McEnery beat keeper Lewis Watch to the ball although it went wide, but he retrieved it and tried to curl it into the left side of the goal but sent it wide of goal. A minute later and George Carter-Knight sent a long ball over the Fareham defence for JI NASH to run onto and calmly tuck the ball under the visiting keeper to give the Yachtsmen the lead. A minute later and George Carter-Knight repeated the pass, this time James Wykes latched onto the ball, beat the keeper and then should have squared it to one of two players waiting in the box, however he tried a shot which went straight into the keepers hands. Simon Woods then had a shot which went wide of Ed Hatts goal before he saw another effort blocked by the Cows stopper. Archie Wilcox then headed straight at Ed Hatt as Fareham threatened. Jared Wetherick went close with a delicate chip that went inches over the bar, before pressure finally told when on 31 minutes SIMON WOODS sent the ball across the goal into the bottom right corner of the Cowes goal to level the scores.
Seven minutes into the second half Cowes’s Joe White was booked for a foul challenge. On 54 minutes some naïve defending from the home side at a Fareham free kick saw them fall behind. The visitors were awarded a free kick to the right of goal about 25 yards out. No home defender picked up Simon Woods who strolled into the area to the right of the wall, the ball was rolled to him before he crossed along the six yard line, despite the desperate efforts of Conor White the ball reached ARCHIE WILCOX who slammed the ball into the goal from 7 yards. Further joy for the visiting team when, in the 58th minute a free kick into the Cowes box appeared to beat everyone, but the Referee blew his whistle and pointed to the penalty spot, everyone was perplexed by the decision but it appeaers the Official saw a foul by Joe White, that nobody else saw, there was no appeal from Fareham, but thats the decisions that go against you when you are down the bottom of the table. ARCHIE WILCOX took the spot kick to score Fareham’s third goal of the game. Young Ben Snow replaced Tom Dye, but it was the visitors that added a fourth goal when a corner from the left saw ETHAN JONES score from close range. Shortly after James Wykes was replaced by Scott McFarlane but the home side failed to make any sort of impact in their attempt to get back into the game. Fin Phillips had a shot that the visitors keeper gathered at the second attempt but that was the closest either side came to adding to the goalscoring. Aidan Bryan was taken off for the final ten minutes, Mitchell Ricketts taking his place , Late on substitute Ben Snow was forced off the pitch with a recurrence of his groin injury as the home side ended the game with ten players.
