Sporting Weston 3 Wrington Redhill 1
This game was only seconds old before Sporting showed their intent when a Joe Smith drive was saved at full stretch by Rob Hannah (sponsored by Tim Bush) in goal for the visitors. The resulting corner was one of a series won by Sporting in the 1st half that were comfortably dealt with by Hannah backed by the aerial strength of Josh Skuse and Connor Harding James. At the other end Harrison Campbell and Cody Parslow were giving their markers a busy afternoon on the left and right flanks respectively but JackHutchings was being closely marked by the Sporting back line and given little space to operate in. Wrington Redhill looked like they would take the lead as Josh Skuse swept a long pass to the feet of Cam Milkins who was well placed to score but had the ball cleared away as he was about to shoot. For Sporing Harvey Ayers was seeing lots of the ball on the right but Wrington Redhill’s Elliot Edwards was having a fine game and never once let him through on goal. He was also offside on a number of occasions as the linesman was kept busy. Many complaints were made by the home dugout but the verisimilitude is you ‘can’t see if it’s offside from where they’re stood’ but still they kept on. The breakthrough came right on half time when a hurried Sporting clearance flew out to the left and was latched onto by Michael Azaifor as Ollie Habgood appealed for offside but the fair minded linesman kept his flag down. Azaifor proceeded down the left a fired in a low hard cross that Dean Chrisostomon pounced on and turned into the net past Hannah .
The 2nd half saw the influencial Lew and Cam Milkins desperately struggling to take their usual grip on midfield as their midfield partner Jake Marshman was unusually off the pace. Jack would soon be taken off as he was unwell. Soon after it was 2 nil when Chrisostomon exchanged passes with Ayers and was through on goal and finished by neatly threading the ball under Hannah. Soon after there was a penalty when the ref decided that a Cam Milkins challenge on Eb Sanyang was a trip and inside the box. Ryan Thomas took the 1st penalty before anyone was ready and was made to take it again. He strode up again with horripilation growing on his arms and this time his spot kick was saved by Rob Hannah but Thomas followed up and slammed the rebound home. Even at 3 nil and despite the fact that Marshman had been forced off by illness (a possible victim of zymurgy) Wrington Redhill never gave up. With 15 minutes left there was a glimmer of hope when Elliot Edwards was set free down the left by a Harding-James long ball and shot. His goalbound effort was saved by Kyle Slocombe by the rebound fell to the dependable Jack Hutchings (sponsored by OES Electrical Services Ltd) who slammed it into the net. There was a lot of huff and puff from both sides in the remaining minutes but nothing came of it as Sporting Weston progressed to the next round.
