Winchester City 1-3 Sholing

Scorers : Henry Brooks 90+10 / Dan King 13 (OG), Dan Mason 18 (Pen), Jake Cope 58

Date: Saturday 12 August 2023, 3:00pm – Southern League Premier South

Venue: Charters Community Stadium  Attendance: 289

Winchester City : Charlie Philpott, Callum Baughan, Dan King, Max Smith, Jordan Rose (Tommy Wright 46), Callum Chugg, Trevor Caborn (Henry Brooks 12), Jamie Barron © (Dan Jones 70), Conor Lynch, Simba Mlambo, Ik Hill.  Unused subs : Sam Steel, Dan Walster

Bookings :  Max Smith, Jordan Rose, Callum Chugg

Red Card : Max Smith (straight red)

Sholing : Ryan Gosney, Brad Targett, Marv McLean (Alex Sawyer 46), Pete Castle, Charlie Wagstaffe (Jake Flannigan 82), Jake Hesketh, Jake Adams, Byron Mason © (Owen Roundell 46), Dan Mason, Wayne Robinson 70, Jake Cope. Unused subs : Charlie Fox, Mark Gamble

Bookings : Jake Hesketh, Charlie Wagstaffe

Red Card : Jake Hesketh (second yellow)

Sholing Man of the Match : Wayne Robinson

Boatmen got an historic first ever win at step 3 with an excellent performance at Winchester City.  A much sharper looking Sholing scored twice in the 1st half through an OG and a D-Dan penalty, then wrapped it up with a Jake Cope goal after the break.

Team News : TJ was unfortunately added to the growing injury list that already has defenders Dan Miller & Rob Flooks currently missing.  Pete Castle started at the back and was joined in the squad by another member of the Vase winning side, Alex Sawyer!   Other former Boatmen are currently either muting their notifications or waiting for the call from Diapes!  First team coach, Mark Gamble, registered in time to be on the bench if needed.

Winchester City had Jordan Rose at the back, who was with us for the run-in last season.  They also had new signing Conor Lynch up front and former Totton forward, Tommy Wright on the bench, but were without Pip Nolan & Warren Bentley.

With Winchester planning to install a new 3G surface next summer, unsurprisingly, it looked like little has been spent on their current grass pitch, which already in August, isn't looking or playing great.  The rain had moved away and the game was played under cloud, but was warm enough despite a bit of a breeze.

Straight from the kick-off, Sholing set the tone, closing down the home side and setting up Jake Adams to try a curling shot from the edge of the box that Philpott saved at full stretch.  Winchester's cries for a penalty fell on deaf ears as the Referee rightly called the excellent tackle by Pete Castle, a fair challenge.

Wayne Robinson had already put a bit of panic into the Winch back-line with his pace and it was Wayne's hard work at pressing Dan King that gave us our opener.  King overhit his back-pass to his keeper with Philpott unable to control it as it bobbled over his foot and rolled into the empty net.

We quickly doubled our lead and again it was down to Wayne Robinson being a pest, but also showing great skill to do a Cruyff turn on the by-line to run into the area and be tripped for a penalty.  DAN MASON smashed the ball into the bottom corner giving the keeper no chance, to get him off and running as he moved within 10 goals of becoming our all time record goalscorer.

Sholing continued to quickly close down Winchester and the front two of D-Dan & Wayner were causing the defence all sorts of problems.  Jake Hesketh picked up a very harsh yellow on 30 mins when he was clearly fouled and then stretched for the ball, making contact with a Winch player.  A foul certainly, but nothing more IMHO.

Jake Cope got off a shot that Philpott saved very well as the Boatmen remained on top, but we did hand Winchester a lifeline on 41 minutes when a lazy leg in the box saw a Penalty awarded.  Conor Lynch stepped up, but hit a tame effort that a keeper of Gosney's quality comfortably saved.

Just before the break, Jake Hesketh's corner saw the ball bobble around the area, one shot blocked near the line before the ball fell to Copey to hit an effort that went narrowly over.   HT 0-2

We suffered a double blow for the restart with Byron Mason & Marv McLean both needing replacing through injury.  Owen Roundell slotted into the centre of defence, Brad switched to the left with Alex Sawyer coming on at right back.

Naturally, with a lead and also personnel changes, we sat a bit deeper as the second half got underway, but were still looking dangerous going forward. On 58 mins the third goal arrived.  Dan Mason collected the ball on the right side of the area, he initially looked to have wasted the chance to cross the ball, but he turned his marker inside out to work space and put over a perfect cross for the arriving JAKE COPE to knock into the net.

Jake Adams & Jake Hesketh were combining well, although the latter was on the receiving end of several late challenges as Winchester's frustrations grew.   Jake Adams had a freekick opportunity, but his effort was into the wall. Ryan Gosney made a brilliant save when the ball dropped in behind for Jones to be in on goal, but Gos spread himself to deny a certain goal with a terrific stop.

A beaten Winchester side were able to reduce Sholing to 10 men on 81 mins. There was no contact made by Jake Hesketh, but the Winchester player threw himself to the ground, screaming in the process, with the referee seemingly not seeing the "challenge", but saw the amateur dramatics and pulled out a second yellow for Hesk without consulting his assistant.

Sholing were defending from the front, Wayne, Dan, Copey & Adams working their socks off and our defence was being excellently marshalled by Pete Castle, who looked like he'd never been away. 

Winchester's man advantage didn't last long, when following a late challenge it kicked off and Max Smith did a bit of a Zidane-like headbutt that everyone in the ground saw and rightly got a straight red.

Boatmen deserved a clean sheet, but with 10 minutes of added time played, Winchester scored when Henry Brooks low shot appeared to take a deflection before clipping the inside of the far post and going in.  It was the last kick of the game as Sholing grabbed our first 3 points at Step 3. FT 1-3

Dave Diaper : "The boys gave a great wholehearted performance at Winchester City. We knew we had to start well and outwork them and to a man we did. The first goal is always important and whilst it was an OG, our high press forced the error. The second half saw 2 enforced changes with By and Marv being injured, but the boys stuck at it and saw the game out for a memorable first ever win at this level"

Next Game : Plymouth Parkway v Sholing - Tuesday 15 August 7:45pm - Southern Premier

Next Home Game : Sholing v Hayes & Yeading United - SUNDAY 20 August 3pm - Southern Premier

Photos courtesy of EspieJaz, swipe to view pics :