Sholing4-2Bashley

Scorers :  Tobi Adekunle 13, Dan Mason 19, 52, TJ Cuthbertson 74  /  Ronan Moore 2, Clive Makoni 43

Date : Monday 6th April 2015 - 1:00pm kick off - Evo-Stik League Southern South & West Division 1

Sholing : Lee Webber, TJ Cuthbertson, Sam Olaofe, Jack Smith, Dan Miller, Alex Sawyer, Barry Mason (Nick Watts 56), Byron Mason [c], Dan Mason (Jamie Mansell 78), Declan McCarthy (Les Mwenze 45), Tobi Adekunle.  Unused Subs : Owen Roundell, Liam Golding.

Yellow Card : 

Bashley : James Lambourne, Joe Petty, Dammy Bada (Dan Maher 80) Brad Morris [c], James Keith, Gus Sanniez, Leighton Spechley-Price, Connor Cullingford (Arron Dunne 60), Clive Makoni, Ronan Moore, Ryan Brading (Nuno Pereira 45)  Unused Subs : Ben Dashwood, Lee Taylor

Yellow Card : 

Attendance : 355

Man of the Match :  Dan Miller

Referee :  Mike Desborough.  Assistants: Nigel Baker & Derek Hughes

A season's best crowd of 355 came out for the early afternoon game between Sholing and the already relegated Bashley as Sholing looked the season on a high. A host of stands including a hog roast and beer were put on for the pay what you want event which obviously went some way to getting the crowds in. In the end a Dan Mason brace and goals from Tobi Adekunle and TJ Cuthbertson saw Sholing past 2-goal Bashley in a lovely spring day at the Silverlake Arena.

Bashley got the game underway, and were straight ahead thanks to a seriously unfortunate goal. Ronan Moore hooked a hit and hope effort goal bound and took a heavy deflection off a Sholing defender, which sent the ball looping over a sprawling Lee Webber and sent the already loud Bashley visitors delirious. Byron Mason smacked over a desperate effort a few minutes later before getting involved with a small altercation with James Keith.

Sholing were not to be behind for long. And it was another really fortunate goal that levelled the game. A ball from the right took a lucky bounce and ended up at TOBI ADEKUNLE, who gratefully poked the ball home from short distance to restore order. And a few moments later Sholing were ahead. A free kick into the area was met by Barry Mason, who set up brother DAN MASON, who really couldn’t miss from where he was and, and made no mistake with a cool finish.

The football seemed nothing more than a sideshow today from the competition between the fans in the stand, with already relegated Bashley refusing to go down quietly. Despite propping up the table and reputation for conceding more goals than the average side, Bashley were giving a good account of themselves and Sholing were struggling to break them down. Barry Mason gave the marauding goalkeeper an issue when a the man in purple entered no-mans-land. Barry Mason couldn’t get a proper touch on the ball and the keeper got it away. Byron Mason required treatment 5 minutes before half-time, and although clearly not comfortable, decided to try the injury until half-time.

After a weekend of eye-brow raising goals in the Premier League, Bashley’s Clive Makoni added a sparkle of his own. Ronan Moore hoofed a ball over the Sholing defence and Clive Makoni put his skates on a hunted it down. He got to the ball first and then acrobatically looped it over the top of the yet again helpless Lee Webber. To put Bashley back on level terms, in an even matched first half between the sides HT 2-2

Both sides made a sub before the second half, and although it looked as though Byron was the favourite to be leaving the field, it was actually Declan McCarthy being replaced by Les Mwenze. And as the game restarted, Alex Sawyer was named over the loudspeaker as the Sholing supporter’s player of the season.

Barry Mason took a first time volley and only put it into the side netting, although it would have been a fantastic goal. Not long after that Sholing retook the lead for the second time thanks to DAN MASON, who despite being pulled and tugged to the ground, managed to hook a shot away that bounced unchallenged into the near side of the goal, with the keeper merely a rooted bystander. Nick Watts was denied by an unbelievable last ditch reaction save by James Lambourne following an Adekunle corner. A few minutes later, Lambourne was defying odds again as he pulled out another jaw dropping save, this time to spare the blushes of his own defender.

Alex Sawyer smacked the bar from sweet free kick after Dan Mason was tripped, although the keeper looked to have it covered. Tobi Adekunle powered through to try a cheeky lob of his own, that went sailing over and good cut off defending meant Dan Mason was refused a chance at his hat-trick. Lee Webber got down low to stop a vicious hit from Nuno Pereira after the Bashley man was left in acres of space at the back post by the Sholing defence.

Byron Mason missed a glorious chance to double the Bashley deficit, after Dan Mason had fought all the way to the by-line to square the ball back into the middle. TJ CUTHBERTSON did however double the lead though seconds later after the ball fell to him at the back post, and his effort left the net rippling. Dan Mason would not be collecting the match ball as he was removed from the game in the 78th minute, being replaced by Jamie Mansell.

Dan Miller denied a clear goal scoring opportunity with an excellent last ditch tackle to prevent Arron Dunne after he was initially through 1 on 1 with Lee Webber. The game was clearly fizzling out as both teams looked for one last hurrah, Alex Sawyer came close to getting one for Sholing after chasing down the goalkeeper and Joe Petty struck a swirling effort that ended up curling away from the goal FT 4-2

Report by Ollie Maskell

Photos by Ray Routledge (click an image to enlarge)

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