Larkhall Athletic 2-0 Sholing

Scorers : Harley Prior 1, Bradley Norris 90

Date: Tuesday 18 April 2023, 7:45pm – Southern League Division 1 South

Venue: Plain Ham  Attendance: 107

Larkhall Athletic : Alfie Kelsey, Jack Goodall, Tom Bradley, Sam Boulton, Aaron Parsons, Matt Bowman, Dawid Regula, Jack Camm, Harley Prior, Bradley Norris, Abdulrasaq Alamu-Tajudeen. Subs : Kye Simpson, Tom Warren, Oliver Eglon

Bookings :  Tom Bradley, Matt Bowman, Jack Camm, Abdulrasaq Alamu-Tajudeen

Red Cards : Jack Camm, Tom Warren, Andy Crabtree

Sholing : Ryan Gosney, TJ Cuthbertson, Josh Batt, Leon Baker, Dan Miller © (Jordan Rose 75), Rob Flooks, Sami Makhloufi (Cohwen Whitaker 46) Charlie Wagstaffe, Dan Mason, Wayne Robinson, Jake Cope (Sonny Hanson 60) Unused sub : Lee Wort

Bookings :  Leon Baker, Charlie Wagstaffe, Sonny Hanson

Red Cards : Ryan Gosney

Man of the Match : Wayne Robinson

A game of 4 red cards wasn't what anyone was expecting from an end-of-season affair with nothing on the line, but a messy match saw the home side take the win.

Team News : Byron Mason took management of the team with the Diapes' unavailable.  Side was rotated to give minutes to players who haven't featured as much recently or are still working back to full fitness.

It only took 55 seconds for Larkhall to take the lead, a break down the right saw an angled shot from inside the area pushed out by Gosney, but into the path of Harley Prior to tap in.

Our best period of pressure came about 20 mins into the game, Jake Cope went on a powerful run from the halfway line, but shot wide. He then had an effort turned round the post.  Dan Mason turned his marker in the box, who dangled a leg, but D-Dan opted to take the shot and it found the side netting.

Larkhall were continuing to look dangerous with their pacy forwards and Gos made a good save with his legs before Josh Batt hacked the ball off the line.  The home side then missed an absolute sitter in first half added time.  HT 1-0

Sholing were not creating much going forward, but Wayne Robinson was working hard to create something out of nothing and put a shot just wide.  Cohwen Whitaker tried to recreate his freekick goal from Saturday, but this effort was comfortable for the keeper.

Cohwen Whitaker, Sonny Hanson & Jordan Rose had all come on in the second half, but we still found ourselves pinned back in our half for long periods with another Larkhall effort cleared off our line.  Wags got booked for a challenge and the Larkhall player went looking for revenge soon after to spark 3 red cards.

Jack Camm received his second yellow for the high challenge on Wags and in the afters, Larkhall sub Tom Warren and coach Andy Crabtree were shown red cards, I presume for something they said to the referee.

Sadly, our man advantage lasted all of 2 minutes as Leon Baker went off injured and with all subs used, it was now 10 v 10.

Abdulrasaq Alamu-Tajudeen had been impressive for Larkhall and his blindly pace took him in behind the Sholing defence and Gosney did something he will probably long regret, by coming outside his area and making contact.  It was a straight red and we were down to 9 men.

Jordan Rose went in goal, but the only thing he had to do was pick the ball out of the net, as from the freekick, Bradley Norris passed the ball into the bottom corner to give the home side a deserved win. 

We go again in our final league game of the season away at Exmouth on Saturday, before the massive Promotion Play off Semi Final next Wednesday. FT 2-0

Photos courtesy of EspieJaz, swipe to view pics :