Scorers : Lee Wort 34, Jake Hoole 41, Dan Mason 44, 81 & 83

Date: Friday 31st August 2018 - 7:45pm - Sydenhams Wessex Premier

Venue: Meadens Skoda Arena

Brockenhurst : Matt Taylor, Tommy Barnes, Ronan Moore, Greg King, Matt Burt [c], Cassius Newton (Ethan Maddocks 59), Mo Nyang, Matt Casey, James Thomson (Jude Nwachukwu 69), Matt Sheedy, Leon Carbayo-Borges (Aaron Dunne 31).  Subs not used : Will Tickle & Luke Deacon

Red Card :  Greg King

Sholing : Nick O'Donnell, TJ Cuthbertson, Marv McLean (Owen Royl 60), Pete Castle, Dan Miller, Jamie Bulpitt, Alex Sawyer, Byron Mason [c], Dan Mason, Lee Wort (Billy Connor 46), Jake Hoole (Bradley Targett 76).  Subs not used : Owen Roundell

Yellow Card : Alex Sawyer

Attendance:  145 (approx 25 Sholing fans)

Referee:  Jonathan Pike  Assistant Referees: Eilidh Currie & John Bungay

Dan Mason hit his second hat-trick of the season as Sholing continued their impressive start to the campaign, defeating 10 man Brockenhurst for the second time in 10 days.  Mason's strikes took him to 12 goals in 8 games, with Lee Wort claiming his 9th and Jake Hoole's goal also adding to the Boatmen's tally of 26 in August.

Nick O'Donnell continued in goal and Pete Castle was able to start, with his 3 game suspension coming into effect after this match.  Brockenhurst's team was much changed from the previous game just over a week ago, with much more experience and height added to their line up, including ex-Sholing players, James Thomson and Mo Nyang (with Jude Nwachukwu on the bench).

A touch of class by Brockenhurst before kick off, forming a guard of honour with the Sholing players to mark Dave Diaper's 1001st game as manager of the Boatmen.

Match started at break-neck speed, with thrilling end to end attacks right from the kick off. Carbayo-Borges found himself behind the Sholing defence in the first minute, but O'Donnell did well to come off his line and deflect away the shot.   Boatmen went close twice soon after, firstly Jake Hoole fizzing a shot just over the bar and then Wort fired just wide.  James Thomson thought he had scored against his old team on 6 mins, but his powerful angled shot was superbly tipped round the far post by O'Donnell at full stretch.  Nick also did well to claw out an in-swinging corner.

On 11 minutes, Marv McLean hit a fantastic pass through the defence to free Lee Wort, who cut in, but Taylor in goal pulled off a terrific save down low to his right after the shot took a small deflection.   The attacks kept on coming, with Dan Mason bursting into the box onto a bouncing ball that he beat the keeper to, but his first time prodded effort went wide.

It was a frantic start to the match, but on 23 minutes, the Referee got involved for the first time when Wort and Greg King went full pelt towards a free ball on the right wing, with Wort coming off worse as the two players went to ground.  The referee decided that King's challenge was worthy of a Red card and despite Brock's heated complaints, they were down to 10 men.

Sholing, who were knocking the ball around well even before the red card, continued to keep possession and were especially looking threatening down the right wing and from that side, they took the lead on 34 mins. A great overlapping run by TJ was spotted by a nicely weighted pass into his stride and the right back's superb cross on the run was met by LEE WORT to nod past the keeper.

Boatmen doubled their advantage on 41 minutes when JAKE HOOLE collected the ball on the edge of the area in a central position and his snapshot left the keeper unmoved as the ball was drilled into the bottom corner.  Sholing were rampant now and a minute before half time, had their third goal.  Sawyer's corner was controlled by Byron Mason, who did really well to knock the ball back into the path of Sawyer, who swung in a cross to the unmarked DAN MASON to head in from 6 yards.  HT 0-3

With Lee Wort feeling the effects of the earlier challenge, he was replaced by Billy Connor at half time.  Jamie Bulpitt did well to wriggle into the box, but his angled shot drifted just wide of the upright.   The second half was much more low key than the first, with Sholing controlling the game with their man advantage.  Marv was also nursing a knock, so made way for Owen Royl on the hour mark.   Ex-Boatmen Development player, Mo Nyang showed some nice touches and good pace for Brock on the right wing, but the Sholing defence were able to mop up the home side's attacks.

As the game entered the final 10 minutes, Dan Mason took centre stage as his thirst for goals shows no sign of being quenched.  On 81 mins, another overlapping run by TJ saw his low cross controlled by DAN MASON who poked the ball through the legs of the keeper from close range.  There was an inevitability about D-DAN getting his hat-trick and we only had to wait 2 minutes as Brad Targett's cross into the box was pounced upon by the striker, who lashed the ball in from 6 yards.  Byron Mason almost grabbed his first of the season, but his header from a corner just grazed the outside of the post.   FT 0-5

Sholing end August having played all 8 games away from home, winning 7 of them and scoring an impressive 26 goals in the process with 4 clean sheets.  With the Cricket season over, the Boatmen can now look forward to a run of home games at the Universal Stadium in the next couple of months.

Next Game:  Sholing v Hamworthy Utd - Saturday 8th September 3pm - FA Cup