Sholing 2-3 AFC Bournemouth U21

Scorers : Alex Baldacchino 78 & PJ McLean 86 / Bassele (pen) 27, Stockley 48, Matthews 90+2

Date : Wednesday 30 July 2014 - 7:45pm kick off - Pre-season Friendly

Sholing : Renouf, Cuthbertson, Smith (Manders, 9), Mott, Miller (McLean 46), Sawyer (Cox, 58), Barry Mason, Byron Mason, Dan Mason (Hamilton 45) , Fennemore (Brewster, 56), Watts (Baldacchino 45).

AFC Bournemouth U21 : Holmes (Flaherty 81), Muleba (Lee 71), Buckley, Zubar, Kaye (Butcher 57), Coulibaly (Wakefield 57), Cornick (Gilkes 45), Whitfield (Benmadouch 57), Stockley (O'Hanlon 81), Goodship (Matthews 27) Bassele (Walsh 57)

Referee : Louis Marks. Assistants Phillip Milton & Stephen Graham

Attendance : 178

Sholing were defeated by the last kick of the game by the Championship side's Development Squad in a keenly contested Friendly. After going two goals down, the Boatmen fought back to square the game via a stunning long range goal by Alex Baldacchino and a brave header by PJ McLean.

After their friendly at AFC Totton was cancelled due to pitch problems, Sholing stepped in a short notice to provide opposition for AFC Bournemouth's development squad.  Kicking off in bright summer sunshine the game went from end to end. AFCB had the first effort on goal that whistled just past the upright, up the other end, Alex Sawyer's low effort was tipped away for corner. The Boatmen were dealt an early blow when Jack Smith clashed heads during an aerial challenge, he seemed to shake it off, but was eventually taken off a few minutes later still feeling groggy.  From a Nick Watt's cross, Barry Mason found himself in space 10 yards out, but his header looped over the bar. Bournemouth took the lead when Dan Miller was adjudged to have fouled inside the area and Bassele cooly put away the penalty. The remainder of the half saw few opportunities for either side. HT 0-1

Sholing made three changes for the re-start with PJ McLean replacing Miller, Hamilton replacing Dan Mason and Baldachinno coming on for Watts.  The visitors doubled their lead 3 minutes into the second half when after a flowing move, ex-Saints trainee Sam Stockley finished well with a first time shot inside the near post. AFCB then hit the woodwork a couple of times as they got on top.  Sholing were getting into some good positions out wide, a Barry Mason shot fizzed over, but some of our final balls were letting us down.  Alex Baldacchino was looking lively and out of nothing he scored a stunning goal, picking up the ball 25 yards out and hitting a dipping shot that moved in the air and found the top corner. This gave the Boatmen the necessary boost they needed and suddenly Bournemouth were on the back foot. A brilliant inswinging corner from Kev Brewster was met by PJ McLean whose header hit the chest of the man on the post, looking over the line, but he made sure anyway by throwing himself headlong at the ball as it bounced down. The game looked set to finish all square, but a longer than expected amount of injury time was played by the Referee and Bournemouth took full advantage. Matthews found space outside the box and fired a terrific curling shot beyond Matt Renouf to score with the last kick of the game. FT 2-3

Photos by Ray Routledge : (Click a thumbnail to enlarge)

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AFC Bournemouth Website Match Report

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