Sholing 5-1 Melksham Town

Scorers : Lee Wort 6, 27, 49, Byron Mason 57, Dan Mason 65  / Dan McBeam 85

Date: Tuesday 16 August 2022, 7:45pm – Southern League Division 1 South

Venue:  Imperial Homes Stadium

Sholing : Ryan Gosney, Brad Targett, Marv McLean (Ryan Cluett 70), Rob Flooks, Dan Miller, Rob Nicholls, Lee Wort, Byron Mason ©, Dan Mason (Conor Whiteley 70), Sami Makhloufi, Charlie Wagstaffe (Dom Panesar-Dower 59).  Unused subs : Josh Batt, Owen Roundell

Bookings : Charlie Wagstaffe, Sami Makhloufi, Conor Whiteley

Melksham Town : Connor Thompson, Oliver Webb, Ryan Morgan ©, Jaiden Pearce (Dan McBeam 57), Aaron Parsons, Dale Evans, Jack Camm, Sam Hendy (Will Christopher 57), Jay Malshanskyj, Luke Ballinger (Ralph Graham 57) Albie Hopkins. Unused subs : Sayeed Ibrahim & Richard Fey

Bookings : Oliver Webb, Dale Evans

Attendance: 156

Referee : Tony Smith  Assistants : James Byng & Charlie Hartington

Imperial Homes Man of the Match : Lee Wort

Lee Wort hit a brilliant hat-trick as the Boatmen put on a sensational show of attacking football.

Team News : Sholing were unchanged from Saturday. Owen Roundell & Dom Panesar-Dower returned to the bench, with Jake Cope unavailable. Boatmen were wearing their new kit with PowerPlus sponsoring the front of the shirt and Hendy Renault the back.

Thankfully no worries about the temperature as it was pretty much perfect for an evening game on a lovely surface.  Melksham were presented with a good chance inside 2 mins as Gosney's clearance outside his area went straight to the opposition, but the Melksham player didn't take it first time and Gos was able to race back into goal and hack the ball away. 

Boatmen were opening up Melksham down our left, firstly with Marv and then Sami Makhloufi set up the opening goal on 6 mins when he turned 2 Melksham players, his low ball into the box was half cleared, but only to LEE WORT on the edge of the area and he steered the ball through the crowd of players and past the keeper.

Down the other flank, Brad Targett raced into the Melksham half and hit a lovely early crossfield pass across the back line to find Dan Mason, who was denied by the keeper.  It was to be a busy night for Connor Thompson in the Melksham goal and the first of several great saves saw him tip over a well struck shot from Brad Targett.

Dan Mason showed his strength to hold the ball up and roll his marker, but didn't get the connection he wanted as his shot went straight to the keeper.  It was 2-0 on 27 mins, when Sami Makhloufi threaded a pass through the backline, where LEE WORT beat the offside trap, raced towards the advancing keeper, who he got round and carefully rolled the ball into the empty net.

Melksham weren't rolling over and on 33 mins, a freekick just outside the right edge of the area was curled past everyone and smacked against the far post.  However, Sholing still looked very dangerous with every attack and some nice link up play saw the ball set up for Rob Nicholls to hit a 22 yard thunderbolt that went narrowly wide. Marv was having the Melksham defence on toast and he went close twice, firstly from a header that was saved (yes, a Marv header!) and then a shot that fizzed across the face of the goal.

Thompson denied Sholing again just before the break when a deep ball into the box from Byron evaded everyone and looked to be curling into the bottom corner, but the keeper just got a fingertip to it.  From the corner, Rob Flooks arrived at the back stick, but planted his header just wide.   HT 2-0

Boatmen were straight back into the attacking groove from the restart, when Dan Mason broke into the box, appeared to be held, nothing was given as the ball broke to Wort whose shot was deflected wide.  The life-long goalscoring partners teamed up again on 49 mins as Worty completed his hat-trick.  Dan Mason won the ball off a defender, held off another as he looked up and saw LEE WORT racing in and D-Dan lifted the ball into his path for Worty to head in for his 4th goal in 2 games.

With Sholing in this form, Melksham's best form of defence was attack and they were unlucky on 55 mins as Albie Hopkins cut in from the right and hit a curling shot that beat Gosney, but came back off the angle of post & crossbar.

The captain got into the scoring act on 57 mins, when Sami's corner was headed up into the air by D-Dan and as it dropped into the 6 yard box, BYRON MASON was on hand to finish.  Lee Wort was twice denied his 4th goal of the game on the hour mark. Firstly Dan Mason played in him into the penalty area with a cheeky flick, but Thompson again pulled off a great save.  Then from a corner, Lee had a diving header hit the post. 

Worty looked to be on course for that 4th on 65 mins as he chased a long ball by Sami and in a race with the keeper, he got there first and knocked the ball past him, but with a defender racing back, DAN MASON made sure and got himself a deserved goal as he finished from close range into the empty net.  The Melksham keeper was hurt after colliding with Wort and needed a lot of treatment, but as the visitors had already made all their subs, he bravely continued, although being barely able to kick the ball.

More chances came & went for Sholing, including Rob Flooks getting forward to hit a shot that went narrowly wide. The only blight on the night's performance for Sholing was not coming away with a clean-sheet as persistance from Dan McBeam saw him hook past Gosney with 5 mins left.  However, it was a superb performance by the Boatmen and 2 wins from 2 and after the match, Lee Wort received his man of the match award from Richard Paine, Director of Imperial Homes. FT 5-1

Dave Diaper : "Excellent win for the Boatmen tonight against a good Melksham side, who never gave up. To a man we worked hard and our energy levels were outstanding. Now onto Friday night and our FA Cup home game against unbeaten Portchester. Don’t miss this one it will be a great watch"

Friday Night Game : Sholing v AFC Portchester - Friday 19 August - FA Cup

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