Wrington Redhill 3 Saltford 3

With their series of consecutive home games continuing, the visitors to the Recreation Ground this week was Saltford, a club languishing near the foot of the table although with games in hand on teams immediately above them. Earlier in the season Saltford were facing horrendous problems when Club officials, the whole playing management and players uprooted and left the Club in a precarious position. Since then a number of managers have taken the reigns and new players enlisted and in charge for the first time for this match was Jake Webb.

For Wrington Redhill enforced changes were made due to four players being absent and a couple more carrying niggling injuries so in came Matt Walsh and Jack Hutchings and the return of Jordon Bonner in the starting eleven. It took the hosts some time to settle into any type of rhythm as Saltford belied their lowly position and played with a lot of spirit and determination without really threatening in front of goal.

The home side took the lead when a shot from George Fake from a cross by Reece Ferguson-Obamwonyi was parried by keeper George Dancy and Ryan Pugh was on hand to score his first goal of the season. The lead was short lived when a shot from distance eluded Matt Hill but crashed against the crossbar bouncing down in front of the goal and a Saltford player was first to react and stabbed home for the equaliser.

The play was nondescript for a while but as the half time break was in sight Wrington Redhill had a brief period of control and pressed the home defence further back as they were seeking to get back in front. They were awarded a penalty when Fake was fouled in the box and he duly dispatched the resultant spot kick as the half ended with a 2-1 lead.

The second period started with expectations to push on and press more to extend their lead further. However,Saltford had other ideas and took advantage of the seemingly regular slow start to games after the break,resulted in visitors totally back in the game as they scored two goals in quick succession and somehow were leading 3-2.

At least the current squad of players, even when out of sorts and not playing well, keep working and forced another penalty when Pugh’s pass into the visitors area was handled and again Fake cooly levelled the scorewhich remained at 3-3 at the final whistle.

Player/Manager Leigh White commented that it was disappointing to drop two points but is confident his side will bounce back to winning ways when home again to Ashton & Backwell Reserves next Saturday and hopefully players back to the quad.

Supporters Man of the Match , skipper Dan Ferguson.

Team:

Goalkeeper: ​Matt Hill
Defence:      ​Matt Walsh, Dan Ferguson, Ethan Johnson, Jordon Bonner
Midfield:​Ryan Pugh, Ollie Clements, Leigh White
Forwards:    ​Jack Hutchings, George Fake, Reece Ferguson-Obamwonyi  

 

Substitutes:    Chris Holland (for Matt Walsh), Joe Creese (for Ollie Clements) Kyran Garrett (unused)