Monday Morning Quarterback – Week 6 Christmas Edition

Monday Morning Quarterback –  Week 6 (Christmas Edition) – Upon Further Review

Let’s get right to our 2-1 win against Walton Casuals, and the last time we will face them this season.

With a number of players missing from yesterday’s playing squad, we were limited to two fit players on the bench of four named. Didn’t actually see Dan Bayliss yesterday, but Ben Wright was on the terraces with the fans most of the game.

The game was segregated on the advice of the police, but did we really need it once both clubs had made statements about fan behaviour at the game? I will leave that here and for you to have your own opinion on it. But it is now done and dusted and hopefully will not be repeated going forwards.

Ok to the actual game, and with Charlie Kennedy back in the back four alongside Harry Philby and two new backs in Jim Orvis & Drew Matthews, this looked very much like a makeshift backline.

However, I thought on the whole they played well and with Colm McAdden making some decent saves, we only conceded the one goal, which on recent form was below par for the Walton Casuals attack.

Orvis, provided some neat attacking moves in the style that Dean Stow normally does for us, and Matthews slotted in well into Gerrard’s left back slot.

Dan Collier did a good job in his Kennedy role in midfield alongside Deadfield and Pearse.

The forward line of Sam Argent with a holding Sam Smart, were well supported by Deadfield and new boy Harry Pearse, who starred in his full debut, scoring the opening goal for Stoke. He also linked up well with Akers, who had a slightly better game and was unlucky with a neat little run past two defenders in the first half. However, the majority of the crowd are still expecting a lot more from him. One question is that his speed and skill maybe more suited to a 3g surface as his best performance was on the pitch at Walton Casuals?

Both goals were well taken and finished, but we again squandered other chances in both half’s, which fortunately didn’t come back and cost us.

So, our record against Walton Casuals ended this season as PLD 3 WON 2 DREW 1

That’s now 4 wins out of 5 for martin Kuhl, but more importantly 3 league points that pushed us 3 places up the table to 15th.

We head to Gosport Borough on Boxing Day and a match-up with our old player George Bennett.

Ok, what happened in the games in our league this Saturday, as there was full schedule of matches.

Starting at the top as usual, 1st place Taunton Town travelled to bottom placed Staines Town and  unsurprisingly came away with a comfortable 1-3 win. Staines Town now sit rooted at the bottom.

Taunton increased their lead to  7pts and will head into the New Year at the top of the table.

Second placed Weymouth, slipped up at home after being held to a 2-2 draw against the playoff chasing Harrow Borough. Weymouth had a two-goal lead with goals by Jake McCarthy and another penalty by Brandon Goodship, but were pegged back by two late goals by Borough’s leading goalscorer Dylan Kearney on 77 & 83 mins. The Terras remain second on goal difference from Salisbury. Harrow moved into 5th spot with this draw.

The Whites (Salisbury) closed in on Weymouth with a 2-1 win at the Raymond McEnhill Stadium against our next weekend opponents Beaconsfield Town. Goals by Thomas Whelan and another by Luke Hopper in the first half was enough to defeat Beaconsfield who got a late consolation goal in the 92nd minute.

The Metropolitan Police stayed in 4th place winning 2-1 win at home against Dorchester Town. Dorchester Town took the lead on the half-hour but goals by Oliver Knight and another by Jonathan Hippolyte gave the Old Bill the 3pts. They have games in hand of the others and would rise to 2nd if they won those games in hand.

Ok, the top of the table looks like this;

TEAM PLD WON DRAWN LOST PTS
TAUNTON TOWN 20 14 2 3 44
WEYMOUTH 18 11 4 2 37
SALISBURY 19 11 4 4 37
MET POLICE 17 10 5 2 35
HARROW BOROUGH 19 10 4 5 34

 

We have already covered bottom-placed Staines Town, so in 21st still sit Chesham Utd whose recent good form came to a halt as they lost to a Kerry Morgan goal at Merthyr 1-0.

Frome Town continued on their revival run with back-to-back wins, this time winning on the road at the falling Hendon FC 0-1. This moved Frome Town up out of the relegation places.

With this loss Hendon FC fell down to 7th place and have now lost 6 of their last 7 games.

Wimborne Town have replaced Frome’s relegation spot after a 1-1 draw against Farnborough. Farnborough led after a 4th minute goal but let the 3 points slip as Wimborne’s star striker Tobias Holmes equalised in injury-time at the end of the game.

Ok that leaves us with the last 3 games played in our league. Kings Langley, continue to surprise many people around the league as they moved upto 10th spot as they thrashed our Boxing Day opponents Gosport Borough 3-0 with Mitchell Weiss bagging himself a hat-trick.

Hartley Wintney again proved they can hold there own against many teams as they held on to beat Poole Town 4-3. Two goals by new boy Daniel Stewart helped them move into 9th place.

Lastly, Tiverton Town played out a 2-2 draw at home to Swindon Supermarine.

The bottom 3 relegation places now look like this;

EAM PLD WON DRAWN LOST PTS
WIMBORNE TOWN 20 6 2 12 20
CHESHAM UTD 19 5 3 11 18
STAINES TOWN 21 3 0 18 9

 

Hampshire Snr Cup Draw Confirmation

Ok confirmation of the full draw for Qtr-Finals of the Cup, which took place on Saturday evening.

Fareham Town v Basingstoke Town

Sholing Utd v Horndean or AFC Bournemouth

Bournemouth v Southampton FC

Havant & Waterlooville v Team Solent

Fixtures are to be played the w/c 14th January.

I can confirm that our match at Fareham Town will take place on Tuesday 15th January 2019 with a 7.45pm kick-off.

Squad Departures at the Camrose this week

This week we saw two changes at the club, as both forward Callum Bunting and defender Harry Philby left the club this week.

Bunting was not only a fan favourite at the Camrose, but was our leading goal-scorer last season and very few teams go into a season with your leading striker on the bench, and it’s clear the club have yet to replace his goals this season. Thanks for all your effort Callum.

Harry Philby was in my mind one of our future stars at the club. Philby started the season as a back-up, but the young defender, once we got a run of starts in the back four, proved that he was more than capable of winning a starting role at the club for some time.

Whatever the personal reason for him to make the decision to leave, I wish him well in whatever he decides to do. I would welcome him back in a Basingstoke shirt if at some point he chose to return to football in the future. Thanks for your efforts Harry.

let me take this opportunity to wish all readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Your MMQ – Martin French

 

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