Cinderford Town 2-2 Sholing

Scorers : Own Goal 85, Will Emery 90  /  Charlie Wagstaffe 60, Brad Targett 64

Date: Saturday 25 February 2023, 3:00pm – Southern League Division 1 South

Venue: Causeway Ground  Attendance: 104

Cinderford Town : Ellis Parker, Will Emery, Tristan Haswell, Brandon Liggett, Dion Molyneux ©, Daniel Bernard, Felix Miles (Michael Symons 74), Jamie Bremner (Jack Bartman 88), Jack Freeman (Finley Bell 67), Stuart Fleetwood, Harry Emmett.  Unused sub : Dennis Digie, Will Morford

Sholing : Ryan Gosney, TJ Cuthbertson, Brad Targett, Charlie Wagstaffe, Rob Flooks, Owen Roundell, Lee Wort, Byron Mason ©, Dan Mason, Sami Makhloufi (Jake Cope 46), Wayne Robinson (Leon Baker 46)  Unused subs : Dean Frampton, Josh Batt, Kamil Adediran

Bookings :  Lee Wort

Sholing made it 20 games unbeaten, but after being 2 nil up with 5 minutes to go, it was very disappointing not to come away with all 3 points.

Team News : Marv McLean & Dan Miller missed out, but Dan Mason & Byron Mason returned.

There was a biting wind cutting across Cinderford's pitch perched up on a hill, as the home side made the better start against a Sholing side playing our 4th game in 8 days.  Ryan Gosney made a save with his feet down by his near post and the followed it up by beating away a shot to his left as Cinderford were finding gaps in the Boatmen defence.

On 14 mins, Flooks appeared to be fouled from a corner, but the referee played on.  Roundell had a shot from 20 yards comfortably saved before the home side should have taken the lead. Miles was put clean through down the right channel, but once again, Gosney was quick off his line to smother the effort.

Lee Wort went within a whisker of scoring on 25 minutes when his shot from just inside the box was tipped onto the underside of the bar, with the ball bouncing down onto the line and out where Targett couldn't force in the rebound.

Cinderford put a freekick on the edge of the box straight into Gosney's gloves, before Wort shot wide of the near post and Targett headed wide of the far as the first half came to an end. HT 0-0

Unhappy with our first half performance, Dave Diaper made two changes for the restart, bringing on Leon Baker & Jake Cope.

The changes had immediate effect with Sholing pinning Cinderford back in their own half for the first 30 minutes of the second half, playing some good passing football and getting our reward on 60 minutes.

A nice move ended with TJ finding CHARLIE WAGSTAFFE breaking into the box to sweep his shot past the keeper and in off the far post.   The home side should have equalised straight away, a ball in from the right being put wide with the whole goal to aim at.

Boatmen doubled our lead 4 minutes after our first when Jake Cope raced down the left and put over an excellent low cross that was met at the far post by BRAD TARGETT and bundled in at the second attempt.

We then had two big chances to kill the game off, firstly Dan Mason's crossfield pass put Brad Targett away, he beat the keeper, but the ball cannoned off the far post.  Then a freekick into the box appeared to come off the side of Dan Mason's face and from two yards out, the ball somehow went wide.

We were made to pay for those misses as Cinderford brought on Symonds and the big No9 was the focal point for the home side's comeback.  From a corner on the left, the ball to the near post seemed to be headed by Emmett, but the last touch was credited as an Own Goal as the ball found the net.

Then on 90 minutes, the home side were level, with men over on the right, the ball into the middle found Will Emery and our luck was out as his shot took a massive deflection and in slow motion, looped into the net beyond a helpless Gos.  We did have a chance to win it in added time, but Wagstaffe's half volley was straight at the keeper.  Disappointing end, but still top, unbeaten after a grueling week of games and there will be more twists & turns in the title race, you can be sure of that.  FT 2-2

Dave Diaper : "Not going to reflect too much on the game against Cinderford because of our next fixture coming so soon, but what I will say, is that for a 30 minute spell after half time we were excellent and reflected a team who has been top of the League since August. However, for the other 60 mins we didn't.

Give credit to Alex and his Cinderford side who showed great resilience and determination to get back in the game and if they can carry that into other games will certainly be in this league next season.

Onto Tuesday Night and another tough home game against Evesham United. Thank you for the travelling support yesterday you were outstanding."

Next Game : Sholing v Evesham United - Tuesday 28 February 7:45pm - Southern League

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