Scorers : Tom Richards 63  / Dan Miller 45+1, Pete Castle 52, Dan Mason 68 & 79

Date: Saturday 14th April 2018 3:00pm - Sydenhams Wessex Premier Division

Venue: Arlebury Park

Alresford Town: D Kempson, C Lema (T Richards 60), S Doswell, S Munro (G Farrelly 43), L McCartney, R Green, J Chapman, C Harding, S Burt (D Strange 70), B White [c], G Dunn. Subs not used : J Hawkings, A Cripps.

Yellow Cards:

Sholing: Ryan Gosney, TJ Cuthbertson, Marv McLean (Owen Roundell 8), Pete Castle [c], Dan Miller, Jack Smith (Kev Brewster 74), Jamie Bulpitt, Owen Royl, Dan Mason, Lee Wort, Marlon Mason (Bradley Targett 61).  Subs not used : Frazer McLean, Jamie Bray

Yellow Cards: Jack Smith, Dan Mason, Ryan Gosney

Attendance:  60 (approx 25 Sholing fans)

Referee: Adam Baker  Assistant Referees: Steve Strong & Simon Holman

Man of the Match: Pete Castle

Dan Mason's brace took him to 30 goals for the season as Sholing continued to bang in the goals, despite not being at our best today.  A pivotal goal on the stroke of half time by Dan Miller allowed the Boatmen to get a confidence boost for a second half that we dominated and also included a spectacular goal by Pete Castle.

Team News: Byron Mason was rested, but Dan Miller started. Alex Sawyer was unavailable and Jake Hoole suspended, but back came Jamie Bulpitt & Marlon Mason into the team.  Alresford were in good form, on the back of a 10 match unbeaten run.

Was a blow to Sholing when after only 8 minutes, Marv picked up an injury, he tried to run it off, but had to succumb, with Owen Roundell replacing him.  Not sure if, in Sholing's case especially, the amount of games in such a short space of time was taking its toll.  Or... may well have been the shock of playing football in warm sunshine on a decent pitch, but the first half was low tempo and quite scrappy.  Alresford had an acrobatic scissor kick, that Gosney saved, meanwhile TJ's cross found Dan Mason in space, but he planted his header over.  The home side had a nice give and go move down the left wing, but the final effort was blocked.

The first half looked set to drift towards a stalemate, but in added time, Sholing took a surprise lead.  Owen Royl's left wing corner was flicked on by Dan Mason to the arriving DAN MILLER who buried his header from 6 yards.  HT : 0-1

In keeping with many games recently, Sholing seemed more focused after the restart and soon doubled their lead on 52 minutes with a spectacular goal.  A set-piece was recycled and when the ball dropped to PETE CASTLE on the edge of the area, probably the last thing you expected him to do was hit a first time left foot volley, but that's what he did and the ball flew into the bottom corner!  "Pistol" was mobbed by his teammates as he celebrated his first goal of the season.

Immediately from the re-start, Sholing had a chance to extend their lead when Dan Mason was felled in the box and a penalty awarded. Owen Roundell sent the keeper the wrong way, but his effort cannoned off the post and straight back to him, but as the rules state that another player has to touch the ball, the ref gave a freekick to Alresford.

For a moment, that miss looked like it might effect the outcome as Alresford grabbed a goal on 63 minutes when a whipped in freekick was touched in by Tom Richards.  It could have stirred the home side into a comeback, but all thought of that was killed off by DAN MASON scoring 5 minutes later.  Lee Wort fed the ball to D-Dan, who dropped a shoulder to open space and smash a low left foot shot back past the keeper and into the corner.

DAN MASON completed the scoring on 79 mins with a deft touch to show he can score all kinds of goals.  Kev Brewster had just come on and a freekick on the right wing saw Brewy's usual quality delivery and D-Dan rose to back-flick a header that perfectly cleared the keeper's leap, but dipped under the crossbar.  For the 3rd campaign in a row, Dan had reached the 30 goal mark, with his current total being 114 in 3 seasons.

16 year old, Bradley Targett had come on and looked lively in an advanced role, especially with the home side looking a well beaten side and leaving huge gaps in behind.  Twice Bradley ran through, first time he was unlucky as the ball took a bounce off his knee, but the second time he tried to lob the keeper, but Kempson was alert to it and headed away outside his area.   It was another big win for Sholing, making it 21 goals scored in our last 5 games.  FT 1-4

Dave Diaper said after the game : "Been a tough week, but massive credit to my boys on getting maximum points.  I was a bit tough on them today, but standards mustn’t drop. Good second half from the guys and now onto Fareham on Monday. Let’s get the job done."

Next Games : Fareham Town v Sholing (Monday 7:45pm) - AFC Portchester v Sholing (Thursday 7:45pm)

Photos by Ray Routledge (click an image to enlarge)