MATCH REPORT - vs Hamworthy Recreation
Hamworthy Rec. 8-0 Cowes Sports
Date: Saturday 30th November
Location: The BJM Stadium, Canford Magna
A scoreline to forget for sure, but not necessarily because of a bad performance on the day. Cowes began the match and for the first 10 minutes looked very comfortable with the ball and were competing well with a well-organised Hamworthy Rec side. A moment of brilliance from the Hamworthy CM played their winger through right in front of goal who became 1-on-1 with Hatt, was brought down after knocking the ball past him, with the other winger slotting the ball home that was played by the first winger. After different calls from both benches, as it seemed that the winger who slotted it home was actually called offside, the referee consulted with his linesman and after 1 minute of talks walked towards the box and gave a penalty kick and a yellow card to Hatt for bringing down the winger inside the box, seeing as it proceeded the offside ruling. Hamworthy converted the kick on the 10th minute to go 1-0 up.
On the 15th minute another penalty was given, this time from Hamworthy right winger drifting across the box from right to left where Tout-Walters attempt to make a tackle caught the winger instead bringing him down, the same player who took the first one, took the second and slotted that one home to make it 2-0.
On the 19th minute, the ball was played straight into the Hamworthy striker who released the left winger down the line who takes it inside the box, crosses into the middle where the ball drifts past 2 of our players, and the #8 who successfully converted both penalties was open to slot it bottom left corner to make it 3-0.
The game settled back into what would be seen as a balanced game with the possession-style from both teams (even though somehow it was 3-0) and then Cowes come close in the 33rd minute when a header is won from a corner by Oatley at the back post where the keeper parries it away, causing a quick break from Hamworthy where they take the ball down the left wing with Cowes players scrambling back. The numbers were just too much for Cowes to handle where a cross from the player on the left finds 2 open men in the middle, a shot just inside the box is initially saved by the oncoming Hatt, but the ball ricochets off the post and back towards the player who took the shot, who slots it into an empty net.
A half where Hamworthy Rec. seemingly had 4 chances to score, and scored them, leaving Cowes a bit dazed going into half time.
Things didn’t go to plan in the second half where 2 goals in 5 minutes took the scoreline to 6-0, leaving the Yachtsmen a long 40 minutes ahead to try and get something positive out of this game. The life was seemingly sucked out of the game at this point where Hamworthy took their foot off the gas and Cowes were getting frustrated and unable to put a good string of passes together.
The 7th goal came on the 62nd minute where a corner was cleared to a free Hamworthy player 40 yards from the box. A cross direct to the back post was won in the air by a Hamworthy defender over Hatt and into the opposite corner. The 8th goal occurred in the 89th minute, a header from a corner leaving Cowes facing a scoreline that no-one would have expected, and the team wondering what happened for them to walk off the pitch at full time losing the match by 8 goals.
It certainly felt like one of those games where all nearly chances Hamworthy Rec. had were finished, where as 9 times out of 10 teams only manage to convert 30%-40% of their chances this season.
Either way, we park this in memory, and move forwards to try and make amends and gain some much needed points to further distance themselves from the bottom 2 places.
Goals:
Hamworthy Recreation - Hodge (pen 10’, pen 15’, 19’, 34’, 46’), Long (49’, 89’), Rolls (62’)
Cowes - N/A
Next Up: The Yachtsmen welcome Bournemouth (Poppies) to The Zilch Waste Stadium where anything can happen considering our last 2 outings against them, a 5-0 win, and a 1-0 loss, both away from home, both within 7 days of each other.