Winchester0 2Sholing

Scorers :  Zac Mouland 33, Jack Smith 43

Date : Wednesday 27th July 2016 - 7:45pm - Friendly

Winchester City : Awaiting line-up

Yellow Card : 

Sholing : Ryan Gosney, Alex Sawyer, Owen Roundell, Pete Castle, Marv McLean, Barry Mason, Jack Smith, Byron Mason, Jake Hoole, Zac Mouland, Dan Mason.  Subs used : Owen Royl, Nick Yeomans, Jamie Bulpitt, Kieran Winman, Kevin Brewster

Yellow Card :

Attendance : 70 ish (Approx 20 Sholing fans)

Man of the Match : Jack Smith

Referee : Sam Ogles  Assistants: Ross Murphy & Paul Roots

Boatmen rounded off their pre-season with an excellent performance against Southern League Winchester. Sholing dominated the first half and created a host of chances with our movement & good football.

Alex Sawyer made his first appearance of pre-season, but Dan Miller & Zach Glasspool missed out. Some drama on arrival at Winchester's ground as news soon spread that their manager, Paul Masters, had quit earlier in the day.

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Boatmen were on the front foot from the kick off and after only a minute, Barry Mason tried his luck from almost 30 yards, stinging the keeper's palms as he put it over for a corner.  He was in action again almost immediately as Jake Hoole showed good skill to work an opening and get off a curling shot that was acrobatically tipped round the post.   Was more to come inside the first 15 minutes as firstly Dan Mason was played in on the right side of the area, but his shot cannoned off the upright.  Then in a similar position, Barry Mason fired over.  Apart from a few corners, the home side offered little up front and the only worry for Sholing was that we'd hadn't taken one of our many chances.

In particular, the movement of Dan, Zac, Jake & Barry were pulling the Winch defence all over the place. Finally we were rewarded on 33 mins as ZAC MOULAND collected a pass on the right side of the area and got off an early low shot across the keeper that hit the far post and went in. 

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One for the scrap books just before half time as a crisp passing move through midfield saw JACK SMITH overlap and from 15 yards, he finished well past the keeper for a very rare goal, the night before his Birthday!   HT 0-2

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The talk at half time amongst Sholing fans was the quality of the football played by the lads in the first half and how sharp everyone looked.  Winchester started the Second half looking more determined, applying more pressure to a Sholing defence, that stood up well.  Biggest scare for the Boatmen was a low shot that left Gosney stranded, but it smacked off the base of the post and was cleared.

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As is the pattern of pre-season friendlies, the substitutions started to flow, causing the game to be more disjointed.  However, the youngsters who slotted into defence all looked comfortable as the threat from Winchester deminished and Sholing were able to coast through to the final whistle.  Another step on the way to getting the season underway for real next Tuesday.  Players looked sharp, clean sheet, new boys have fitted in well and hopefully we can get off to a strong start to the season.  FT 0-2

Report & Pics by Keith Legg

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