Exmouth Town 2-3 Sholing
Scorers : Harry Walford 81, Aarron Denny 88 / Dan Mason 45, Charlie Wagstaffe 69, Lee Wort 75
Date: Saturday 22 April 2023, 3pm – Southern League Division 1 South
Venue: Circle of Care Community Stadium Attendance: 351
Exmouth Town : Robert Powell, Harry Walford, Karl Riddell, Michael Landricombe, David Rowe ©, Thomas Gardner, Aarron Denny, Callum Shipton, Ace High (Ethan Slater 68), Jordan Harris, Ben Steer (Dean Billingsley 77). Unused subs : Mark Lever, Jordan Casey
Red Card : Karl Riddell
Sholing : Theo Widger, TJ Cuthbertson (Sami Makhloufi 76), Marv McLean, Charlie Wagstaffe, Jordan Rose, Josh Batt (Brad Targett 46), Wayne Robinson (Cohwen Whitaker 71), Byron Mason ©, Dan Mason, Lee Wort, Jake Cope. Unused subs : Dan Miller, Sonny Hanson
Bookings : TJ Cuthbertson, Wayne Robinson
Powerplus Man of the Match : Dan Mason
Boatmen rounded off the league campaign with a win at Exmouth and also found out we'd be playing Wimborne in the play off semi final on Wednesday.
Team News : Marc Diaper took charge and was able to welcome back Marv to the starting line-up, along with Theo Widger in goal. Dan Miller, Rob Flooks & Leon Baker were rested.
Was an even opening with both sides creating chances, with Wayne Robinson & Dan Mason being denied by good saves and Exmouth having a goal ruled out for offside.
On 36 minutes a fantastic save by Theo Widger as he sprung to his right to tip a low effort by Harris round the post. Boatmen upped the pressure before the interval and got our reward in added time.
Jake Cope got to the byline in the box and pulled the ball back to DAN MASON to smash into the top corner from 12 yards for his 24th goal of the season. A minute later and Exmouth were down to 10 men when Riddell was shown a straight red for a late tackle on Byron. HT 0-1
A look at the other half time scores involving teams hunting for the final play off spot, saw Bashley in 5th due to them leading at Paulton and Evesham losing 2-0 at home to Totton...
Good to see Brad Targett recovered enough to get 45 minutes under his belt as he came on for Josh. As the heavens opened, the second half saw little in the way of goalmouth action until past the 60 minute mark when Theo Widger made two saves.
Sholing went back up a gear and grabbed our second on 69 minutes. Brad Targett freed CHARLIE WAGSTAFFE through the middle to slot the ball past the keeper and celebrate with the traveling Sholing fans behind the goal.
Boatmen cut open the home side to make it 3-0 on 75 mins when a slick move saw Cohwen Whitaker find LEE WORT on the right side of the area to cut back onto his right foot and score his 26th goal of the campaign.
10 man Exmouth rallied in the final 10 minutes, getting two goals back via Harry Walford & Aarron Denny, but the Boatmen kept our heads and Lee Wort was denied by a superb save in added time as we picked up our 11th away win in the league. FT 2-3
The second half of the play off hunting games was a bit bonkers as 5th place changed hands half a dozen times with Bashley, Tavistock & Evesham all occupying the final slot at one stage or another. Bashley would fade away from contention by losing at Paulton, Tavistock had ding-dong battle with Frome, winning 4-3 and the most remarkable occurance saw 10 man Evesham come from 2 down against Totton to win 3-2 in extra time. With Wimborne drawing at home to Bideford, that allowed Evesham to leapfrog them into 4th place, meaning we will at home to Wimborne on Wednesday.
Marc Diaper : "I thought the lads were superb today. Having already guaranteed 2nd place we were in the position to rest a few ahead of Wednesdays semi final but the attitude and energy against a good Exmouth side was spot on. We’ve now got a couple of days rest before we train and then face Wimborne in the play offs.
Photos courtesy of EspieJaz, swipe to view pics :
