Sholing0-2Clevedon

Scorers : Adam Buckley 70 & 75

Date : Saturday 27th September 2014 - 3:00pm kick off - Southern League South & West

Sholing :Matt Brown, TJ Cuthbertson, Jack Smith, Stuart Mott, Mike Byrne, Alex Sawyer, Nick Watts, Byron Mason [c] (Taurean Manders 45), Dan Mason (Barry Mason 65), Sam Wilson (Jude Nwachukwu 69), Marvin McLean.  Unused Subs: Tobi Adenkunle, Kevin Brewster. 

Yellow Card : Dan Mason 52

Clevedon Town : Kane Mannings, Kaine Gazzard, Mason Winter, Luke Hall-Cousins [c], Rhymel Henderson, Jamie Adams, Joe Swift, Kyle Thomas, Omari Sims, Louis Keane (Adam Buckley 69), Aron Robbins.  Unused Sub: Charlie Hutchings 

Yellow Card : Mason Winter 53

Attendance : 64

Man of the Match :  Jack Smith

Referee : Louis Marks.  Assistants : Michal Fogt & Sean Jenkins

A mistake ridden Sholing side slumped to conceding 2 goals in 5 second half minutes in another league defeat at the hands of Clevedon on a sad day at the Silverlake arena.

Team News : Sholing made 3 changes to the team that were unlucky to draw at Cinderford last week. TJ Cuthbertson returns from injury to replace Kevin Brewster, who dropped down to the bench. Mike Byrne replaced Taurean Manders in defence pushing Jack Smith out to left back and Manders to the bench, and finally Marvin McLean returned to the line-up at the expense of Jude Nwachukwu. Barry Mason returned to the squad as a sub following a few weeks out through injury, Alex Baldacchino is close to returning following a knee operation, but Pete Castle is expected to be around another month yet until he is match fit.

Before the game, both sides saw out a minute’s applause to celebrate the life of Sholing Vice-President Arthur Fox, who sadly passed away recently having been involved with the club in some form for more than 50 years. In light of his passing, the Sholing side also wore black armbands as a mark of respect.

Sholing-Players-pay-tribute

Following the minute of applause, Clevedon got the game underway with quite a sombre feeling still around the ground. But Sholing did their best to raise the mood, starting the game the brighter of the two teams. Just 5 minutes in Byron Mason rose the highest in a packed penalty area, but he didn’t make solid contact and his header floated over. And a couple of minutes later Alex Sawyer couldn’t quite catch a half volley well enough after the ball was clipped down to him by Sam Wilson.

But Matt Brown was kept busy too, he did well to claim a long ball in a crowd and a few minutes after that the number one the grateful to claim a Clevedon strike that was deflected, not once but twice inside the penalty area.

After that the game quietened down, and chances were far and few between so it looked even worse for Clevedon’s Joe Swift when he got his body wrong to head straight up into the air after being found by Kyle Thomas who had made a bursting run down the right.

Nick Watts forced the first real save of the day, in brilliant circumstances. He picked up the ball on the right, before deciding to go the distance himself, leaving 2 Clevedon men for dead in the process. He worked towards the middle before unleashing a vicious strike towards the far side of the goal, forcing keeper Kane Mannings to spring to his right and palm away the effort.

5 minutes before the break Clevedon really should have taken the lead, but in true Fernando Torres style Aron Robbins manage to put the ball over the top of the net, despite being found about a yard outside the goal by a low cross from Omari Sims, who had darted down the right. Robbins, understandably was left with his head in his hands.

Sholing were starting the show signs of frustration, they were unable to close down quick enough, and unable to string sequences of passes together, just before the break, the spirit snapped and Byron Mason came to verbal blows with keeper Matt Brown. And with words still being exchanged that’s how the half ended. HT 0-0

Because of a half time altercation, Byron Mason was removed from the game by managers Dave Fear and Mick Marsh, with Taurean Manders coming on in his place. Stuart Mott appeared to have taken the captains armband.

The second half started even slower than the first had ended, and after Kyle Thomas had his penalty appeals turned away when he left on the floor, and a frenzy of corners and free-kicks for both teams were turned away or wasted.

Dan Mason saw an effort clutched onto by Mannings in the Clevedon goal before Sam Wilson nearly has his effort turned in by a blue and white shirt at the far post before Sholing were dealt the hammer blow that was lingering over their head the whole game.

Adam Buckley had only been on the field a minute, and he made a real impact, helped in no part by some sloppy defending. He latched onto not a particularly good pass before poking the ball hopefully towards the far post, the ball struck the post and bobbled in, maybe with a touch from the defenceless Matt Brown on the way through to silence the dwindling crowd. Then just 5 minutes later, the lead was doubled in both controversial and catastrophic circumstances. Sholing had been awarded a free kick just 10 yards or so inside the opposition half and substitute Barry Mason decided to take it quickly, the kick was poor and was easily picked off by Omari Sims, and with the defence forward expecting a long ball to head, the goal was left exposed with a 2 vs 1 situation, Sims took it to just outside the Sholing area, before squaring to Buckley, who had plenty of time to turn an set before dispatching high past a sprawling Matt Brown. Sholing fans were incensed, they thought that there had been an outside interference from a Clevedon player as the free-kick was taken. But never the less Sholing made very little attempt to cover their own mistake.

Sholing had nothing to conjure up in reply, and just looking as the personal reactions of Nick Watts, who shook his head and muttered curses to himself you could tell that the spirit was beaten as well as the team. And it could have been worse had Matt Brown not reacted quickly to keep out Aron Robbins header in the dying seconds. FT 0-2

After the game I asked Mick Marsh if he could pick out any positives to which he said “I’d struggle, we are in it together, and it’s going to be a long season and if we continue like that it is going to be an extremely long season, let’s not run away from it. It’ll be about the characters now.”

And I spoke to Man Of The Match Jack Smith “We were just missing something today all round, we could not get anything going”

Report and interviews by Ollie Maskell 

Photos by Ray Routledge (click an image to enlarge)