Sholing 0-1 Lymington

Scorers : Nathan Hurst 4

Date: Tuesday 13 August 2022, 7:45pm – Isuzu FA Trophy 1st Round Qualifying

Venue:  Imperial Homes Stadium

Sholing : Ryan Gosney, Ryan Cluett (Tomasz Gruzewski 79), Marv McLean, Josh Batt, Owen Roundell, Rob Flooks, Conor Whiteley (Stu Green 64), Rob Nicholls ©, Dan Mason, Sami Makhloufi (Jake Cope 61), Dom Panesar-Dower.  Unused subs : Wayne Robinson, Dean Frampton

Bookings : Conor Whiteley, Owen Roundell
Sent off : Marv McLean (two yellows)

Lymington Town : Nico Trojanowski, Rian Drake, Luke Churchill, Callum Davies, Ryan Fuller, Sam Shearer, Harrison Cable, Nathan Hurst, Luke Gray, Conrad Churchill, Callum Stratton.  Subs : Craig McCallister, Tom Man, Owen Fee, Dominic Thelen, Karol Skoczen.

Bookings : Rian Drake, Owen Fee, Luke Churchill

Attendance: 107

Referee : Oliver Kaya  Assistants : Krasimir Petrov & Daniel Batchelor

Boatmen suffered defeat for the first time this season as we went out of the FA Trophy to a hardworking Lymington side.

Team News : Sholing were without the injured Byron Mason, Dan Miller & Brad Targett, while, Charlie Wagstaffe & Lee Wort were unavailable. Rob Nicholls took the captain's armband for the first time.

Lymington won a corner after 4 minutes and took the lead when it wasn't cleared by the Sholing defence, allowing Nathan Hurst a header from 6 yards that the player on the line could only head onto the underside of the bar and in.

Sadly, it was a sign of things to come when the ball went 2 yards inside the corner flag, but the linesman was looking at the ref and the ref was looking at the linesman and neither of them were looking at the ball as a throw-in to Sholing was given instead of the clear corner kick.

On 11 mins, Marv put in a lovely cross that was met by a thumping header by Dan Mason, but the young Lymington keeper, Nico Trojanowski, made a superb reaction save to push it over the bar.  Owen Roundell strode forward from the back, riding a challenge before firing wide from the edge of the box.

Lymington were quick to close down, as the Boatmen made hard work of going forward.  Dan Mason had a back header comfortably gathered and Conor Whiteley dragged a shot wide.  HT 0-1

Both sides were lined up ready to get the second half underway, but had to wait as, for whatever reason, the referee slowly went and spoke at length to both linesman, to the annoyance of everyone waiting for the game to get going again.

Conor Whiteley fired wide of the near post when well placed and it was only after Jake Cope & Stu Green came on after the hour mark, that Sholing started to look more of a threat going forward.

Greener was straight into the action, having a shot saved and Jake Cope was also to be denied after hitting a curling effort that Trojanowski dived full length to push round the post. 

The game continued to be more stop than start, with the match official taking far too long over every freekick and substitution.  I dread to think how little the ball was in actual play during this match.

Lymington were not being a threat to the Boatmen backline, but they had their lead to defend and were doing a good job at breaking up attacks, winning headers and keeping possession.

Sholing's best chance came 2 minutes into stoppage time when Stu Green's shot was parried out by the keeper and Jake Cope's follow up deflected wide (although a goal kick was given).

We should have had a penalty in the 94th min when Marv McLean was tripped as he turned inside the box.  The referee blew his whistle and booked Marv for simulation to the disbelief of everyone, bar Lymington.  I can think of no player who is less likely to dive than Marv, who in his +700 games, always stays on his feet unless fouled.

If that was bad, it got even worse a minute later when the Referee showed Marv a second yellow for an adjudged kick during a scramble in the box.

Officiating aside, Sholing were below our usual standards, whilst Lymington battled hard for each other, took their chance and defended well to advance in the FA Trophy to face either Aylesbury United or Evesham United away.

On Saturday, it will be Sholing's turn to be the underdogs when we go to Step 2, Chippenham Town, in the FA Cup.  FT 0-1

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