Wessex League Premier Division
The Abbey, Hamble-le-Rice
Admission: £5.00
Programme: None
Attendance: 54
Match Rating: 3
After a dry Friday and waking up to bright, albeit frosty conditions this morning, on the face if it, today promised to be a much more straightforward affair compared with last Saturday's very wet conditions wreaking havoc on fixture lists. This was the match I had always intended to head for anyway today, and the club’s positive tweet in the morning that it would be "game-on" was good enough for me to make my way there. However, the forecast was for rain to arrive on the south coast during the late morning, and so it duly arrived, threatening a very late call-off - as indeed would happen next door, when the match at Folland Sports was called off about an hour before kick-off. Happily this game did survive, although that must been a rather borderline decision right up to kick-off arrived.
The Abbey is a short, five minute walk from Hamble train station, and after turning off the main road, one enters a complex of several playing fields and facilities for the local squash club and sea scouts. After passing to the side of a brick building, which houses the changing rooms, a small rather clinical bar area offering cans of alcohol, and some chairs, the entrance is to be found in one corner of the ground. After paying admission at a wooden hut, a small container type building is adjacent offering refreshments. Along the far length, there is quite an attractive low but long stand running for about two thirds of the length, painted in club colours of yellow and black and with three rows of wooden benches to sit on inside. There are supporting pillars along the front, but it makes a refreshing change to see a recently constructed stand that is “home-built” and has character. There is just hard standing behind both goals, while the remaining length is not really maintained and it is not possible to walk past the dugouts. Tall trees along the length behind the stand offer a pleasant backdrop, smaller trees line one end, the car park and clubhouse is visible behind the other length, whilst the expanse of playing fields behind the goal closest to the entrance, with see through fencing around the two open sides of the ground. Hamble Club are notoriously unreliable issuers of programmes, and one was not produced today, and even though completed team boards are almost always to be found at Wessex League games (always a really good and positive feature of this league), they were left blank here today.
Hamble Club, who have achieved back to back promotions from the Hampshire League, came into this match in tenth place, following nine wins and eight draws from their 27 league games, and quite impressively have reached the last 16 of the FA Vase, and play their Fifth Round match next Saturday. Cowes Sports were in 19th position in the 22 team division, following seven wins and four draws from their 25 league games, but are seven points ahead of the two teams below them.
Just 15 minutes ahead of kick-off, the match officials were still testing the run and bounce of the ball, and although the goalmouths contained puddles of water, the rest of the pitch was not too bad, and so the game kicked off, with all concerned hoping the misty heavy drizzle would not become more substantial and open up the possibility of an abandonment. Happily, that did not happen, and a decent game was produced considering the difficult conditions. The first half was even, although with barely a minute on the clock, the visitors almost took the lead with a freak goal, the Cowes keeper sending a long punt downfield with the home keeper misjudged, the ball bouncing over him but dropping just wide of the post. But it was Hamble who went ahead on 23 minutes with a terrific free kick fired into the top left corner by Brad Magookin, but Cowes equalised on 42 minutes after they were awarded a penalty for a trip to the outer corner of the area as the players heading out of the area, and John McKie rolled the ball into the bottom right of the net, sending the keeper the wrong way.
Cowes started the second half in the ascendancy and came close to taking the lead on several occasions, but it as Hamble who went back in front on 66 minutes. A free kick just outside the area taken by Coby Wilson took a large deflection to wrong-foot the keeper and the ball rolled into the opposite side of the net. On 74 minutes, Cowes were awarded their second penalty of the game, but this one was weakly struck and was parried wide by the keeper low down to his right. That was to prove costly for the visitors, as Hamble opened up a two goal lead two minutes later. An excellent cross came in from the right wing, which Nick Watts met with a clean first-time finish to steer the ball into the net. Cowes did manage to pull a goal back, but not until the game just entered added on time. This time it was their turn to see a low shot by McKie take a large deflection to wrongfoot the keeper and the ball found its way inside the near post. There was not time for Cowes to grab an equaliser, which probably would have been a fairer reflection on the game.
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