Scorers : Manny Ohameje 7, Fawzi Saadi 76 / Jake Hoole 8 & 32, Dan Mason 20 & 86, Lee Wort 30 & 52
Date: Tuesday 9th April 2019 - 7:45pm - Sydenhams Wessex Premier
Venue: Victoria Park
Bournemouth: Sam Jones, Aziz Aldhayan, Tom Wensley, Lewis Harvey, Harvey Elsom, Harry Cooper, Manny Ohameje, Chia Khider, River Smith, Fawzi Saadi [c], Ali Zintany. Subs : Chris Speers, Stepan Neronski, Ethan Maddocks, Shiv Roushbaiani.
Yellow Card: Fawzi Saadi
Sholing: Ryan Gosney, TJ Cuthbertson, Owen Royl, Pete Castle (Alex Sawyer 65), Dan Miller, Owen Roundell, Jamie Bulpitt, Byron Mason [c], Dan Mason, Lee Wort, Jake Hoole. Unused subs : Brad Targett, Kev Brewster, James Johnson, Nick O'Donnell
Yellow Cards: Alex Sawyer
Attendance: 52 (Approx 20 Sholing fans)
Referee: Martin Bloor Assistants: Daniel Burke & William Rumsby
Boatmen made it their second consecutive 6-2 victory with a masterclass of finishing. There was a type of goal for every appreciator of the beautiful game with a brace apiece for the front three of Jake Hoole, Dan Mason & Lee Wort in an entertaining match, despite the inclement weather.
Team News: Marv & Jack Smith missed out again through injury, but Alex Sawyer returned to the squad to take a place on the bench. Royl went to left back with Roundell starting in holding midfield. For the Poppies, their manager was watching from the stand as he was currently serving a lengthy touchline ban.
Persistant rain all day left the pitch heavy and greasy and appeared to have washed away some of the line markings. At least, they were hard to pick out for spectators huddled in the old stand to shelter from the drizzle. Inside the first minute, Lee Wort fizzed in a shot that skimmed off the wet surface, with the keeper deciding to save the effort with his legs, than risk trying to grab it.
There was then a goal for each side in a crazy minute or so. Bournemouth opened the scoring on 7 mins when a drilled in right sided cross appeared to ricochet between Gosney & Miller, with the ball landing at the feet of Manny Ohameje to gently tap over the line from 1 yard out. Straight from the restart, JAKE HOOLE charged down the Poppies keeper's clearance, with the ball breaking behind Jones, allowing a tap-in for Hoole.
Sholing took the lead on 20 minutes, with TJ taking a freekick near the half way line on the right and firing it into the middle of the box where DAN MASON timed his jump to meet it with a deft backwards flick header that beat the keeper from 10 yards. Boatmen had control of the game and were finding lots of space between the home side's defence & midfield. Jamie Bulpitt tried his luck from 25 yards, but Jones parried it away.
On 30 minutes there was a quite stunning goal by LEE WORT. After receiving the ball on the right, he checked past a defender and unleashed a bullet of a 25 yard left foot shot that beat the full length dive of the keeper and screamed into the far corner. Definitely one to remember. Two minutes later and there was an equally superb goal. JAKE HOOLE picked up the ball in his own half by the left touchline, cut inside and ran across the middle before passing to Lee Wort, who fed the ball first time back to Hoole to check back onto his favoured left foot, go past a defender and coolly slot the ball beyond the keeper and into the corner. Two great goals, that even the home supporters applauded. HT 1-4
Quickly from the restart, Jake Hoole went within a whisker of his first hat-trick for Sholing when his shot on the stretch, came back off the post. The Boatmen soon had their fifth goal and it was another beauty. With his back to goal, Dan Mason received a fizzed in ball to his feet, but despite the slippery surface, killed it stone dead with a fantastic touch to play in the overlapping LEE WORT who took it on and finished with aplomb for his 49th goal of the season.
It was almost a case of who could out-do each other with attempts on goal, with Lee Wort smashing a 30 yard shot that crashed so hard off the bar that it came back to Wort to try a volley that went over. Worty also flashed a shot over from close range that he usually buries and was then unlucky when he appeared well onside as he raced clean hrough, but a late flag from the linesman halted play.
The game entered a slightly scrappy phase, with the referee frustrating the players with some of his decisions. That was especially true on 76 minutes when Jamie Bulpitt appeared to cleanly win the ball outside the box, but the ref gave a freekick to Bournemouth and a yellow card to Sawyer for dissent. Fawzi Saadi curled the 25 yard freekick over the wall and beyond the grasp of Gosney into the top corner to add to the list of the night's spectacular goals.
The final say in the game came from the most deadly duo in the league (and the whole of non league football?), when on 86 minutes, Lee Wort turned his man to speed down the right wing and put over a cross for DAN MASON to outmuscle his marker and head in at the near post. That made it 60 goals for D-Dan and 109 in total for the duo (444 in total for them for Sholing). With just 5 games left, the League record haul of 76 goals by Andy Forbes of Winchester City is probably safe, but don't rule out D-Dan getting close!
In all honesty, I wasn't expecting much from this match before kick-off. I thought the conditions and the fact that Sholing have always found it a hard ground to get a result on, would mean a close game. However, we ended up being served a treat, with some top-draw creativity and finishing. Sholing went beyond 100 goals in the league for the season (105 & counting now) and continue to be the great entertainers, despite the league being long won. FT 2-6
Next Game: Sholing v Tadley Calleva - Saturday 13 April 3pm
