Chippenham Town 3-0 Sholing

Scorers : Jordan Young 36, Luke Russe 72, Harvey Greenslade 74

Date: Saturday 17 September 2022, 3pm – Emirates FA Cup Second Round Qualifying

Venue:  The Thornbury Surfacing Stadium

Chippenham Town : Will Henry, Will Richards ©, Callum Gunner, Jordan Young, Harvey Greenslade, Aaron Simpson, Will Tizzard, Caine Bradbury, Joe Parker, Luke Russe, Will King.  Subs : Eddie Jones, Elefe D'Abadia, Dan Griffiths, Joe Hanks, Tom Mehew, Noah Coppin, Toba Obitayo Qasim

Bookings : Will Henry

Sholing : Ryan Gosney, Ryan Cluett (Tomasz Gruzweski 84), Marv McLean (Jake Cope 78), Rob Flooks, Dan Miller ©, Owen Roundell, Stu Green (Conor Whiteley 68), Robin Nicholls, Dan Mason, Sami Makhloufi, Charlie Wagstaffe.  Unused subs : Josh Batt, Dom Panesar-Dower, Wayne Robinson, Byron Mason

Bookings : 

Attendance: 296 (approx 30 Sholing fans)

Referee : Michael Smith  Assistants : Adam Gregory & Aleczander Ovens

Boatmen went out of the FA Cup to National League South, Chippenham Town and were on the wrong end of a big decision, that might have changed the game.

Team News : Not a match against quality opposition from 2 leagues above to be missing 3 of our best players, but Diapes had to do without the skipper Byron, as well as Worty & Targett.  Stu Green made his first start for 5 months.

It was perfect conditions for football, sunny, but not too warm in Chippenham's very well looked after stadium.  Sholing were kicking down the sizeable slope in the first half, on a pitch that was bare & dusty in places.

Boatmen forced a corner straight from the kickoff, with Dan Mason nodding Cluett's inswinger wide.  The home side had a cross-cum-shot flash across the 6 yard box as the game started pretty even.

On 12 minutes, there was nice link up play between Sami, D-Dan & Greener, but Stu's shot from just inside the box was blocked.  Chippenham had a curling effort on 20 minutes go narrowly over, but Gosney never looked worried about it.

It was a case of nearly-moments for Sholing in the first half, we often got into good positions on either flank, but the final ball into the middle was letting us down.  Probably our best chance came from a Roundell long throw that was flicked on, dropping to Sami Makhloufi in space inside the box, but he skied his effort well over.

On 36 minutes, Chippenham took the lead with a bit of individual quality by Jordan Young who after some link up play down the right, travelled through the middle with the ball to the edge of the Sholing area and drilled a well struck shot into the far bottom corner, giving Gosney no chance.

Straight from the restart and we thought we had a penalty. A long ball by Miller saw Dan Mason get between the last man & the advancing keeper, who tripped Dan as he got to the ball first, to be in on an open goal.  The Referee, who overall had a good game, said contact was made outside, but although the keeper was denying Dan a goalscoring opportunity, the Ref only showed a yellow card.  After treatment, Dan got up and fired the freekick narrowly wide.

Sholing were behind at the break, but very much still in the game as the gap between the clubs in the pyramid, wasn't being reflected on the pitch.  HT 1-0

Chippenham upped the tempo of their play after the restart as they kicked down the slope.  There was some nice approach play, but Gos wasn't called into action.  It was similar for Will Henry in the home side's goal as Sholing didn't get efforts on goal from a number of corners & set pieces.

Chippenham found their scoring boots with 2 goals in as many minutes to kill the tie off.  On 70 mins, a straight ball into the box was sliced by Miller, with the ball seemingly controlled by the arm of Luke Russe who spun to score from close range.  Our heads dropped for a moment and some sloppy play gifted the ball to the Bluebirds, who were able to cut us open with some quick passing, allowing Harvey Greenslade to clip past Gos.

Dan Mason pulled a shot across the face of goal on the angle and Conor Whiteley was unable to control the ball when played in behind by Jake Cope as we couldn't grab a consolation.  There was certainly no lack of effort from the Boatmen, who put their bodies in the way of a couple of late chances by Chippenham.  However, it was the National League South side who deservedly advanced in the competition.  HT 3-0

Thanks to Chippenham for their excellent hospitality and good luck in the next round.

Dave Diaper : "Congratulations to Chippenham on their deserved 3-0 win against us today, but things could have been so different if we were more clinical in front of goal. We might have had a penalty when Dan was wiped out when the score was 1-0. If it wasn't a pen, then it should have been a red card and then the game's very different with the home side down to 10 men. Many thanks to those Sholing supporters for making the trip up"

Next Game : Petersfield Town v Sholing - Tuesday 20 September - Hampshire Senior Cup

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