Fawley maintained there 100% record at Totton and Eling in a hard fought victory over there local rivals.
It was Totton who started the game much better then Fawley. From the whistle it was Totton who had the lions share of possession and worked extremely hard off the ball, when they didn’t have it, to stop Fawley playing there normal short style of football. This resulted in Fawley being camped in there own half for much of the early part of the game. Totton’s chances however were limited to shots from outside the box that didn’t cause the goalkeeper too much trouble. Many corners were conceded by Fawley but also dealt with well defensively.
After all this pressure from Totton, it was Fawley who got on the score sheet first. The first corner Fawley had earned, Callum Earl’s scuffed cross to the near post was somehow let under the foot of the front post defender and gave a gift for Darren Clark to prod home for the opener.
Fawley then stepped up and started to get into the game as the possession equalled a little. But it was Totton who netted next. The ball was fed into the Totton striker on the edge of the box who expertly turned to gain a yard and slotted the ball home to make it 1-1 at half time. Going into the break Fawley were happy to have only conceded one after conceding so much possession.
The second half started and it was still Totton who were on top in the game. The introduction of Mark Redman for the injured Ben Murphy and Tom Hardiman for Shane Renyard gave Fawley new impotence.
With the game stalemate at 1-1 it was Totton who had a golden opportunity to take the led when a mix up in the Fawley defence meant the Totton left midfielder had an open goal from 40 yards. As the ball travelled towards the empty net Matt ‘kung foo’ Blake somehow got his foot to the ball and stopped a definite goal.
Fawley then went up the other end, Matt Redman running into the channel with his fresh legs, his cross was blocked by the hand of the defender 5 yards away and a penalty was given. Callum Earl stepped up and tucked the penalty away to make it 2-1 to Fawley.
With the game slipping away from Totton, they chucked everything at Fawley. Only good saves from Daniel Gilroy, one from a free volley at the near post from a corner and also a save from a shot, 18 yards out by the Totton goal scorer kept Fawley in front.
As the game went on, the confidence in the Fawley team rose and it seemed that every challenge was one by a Fawley player and it was now Totton who were being rushed into to playing poor passes and giving the ball away.
This was how the 3rd goal was scored. Ever busy Matt Redman cut out a square pass in the Totton half, played the ball square to the fresh legged Alex Bracher, who played the perfect through ball for Tom Hardiman to tuck home and wrap up the match.
After this Fawley were content with just clearing the ball up the other end pushing up. So Fawley record 2 wins out of 2 and move onto the next challenge which is Blackfield at home on Friday.

Fawley got there season off to a wining start on Saturday away at Downton.
The weather resembled a bleak December day rather then the first game of the season in August with the rain lashing down, and the game didn’t start much better as both teams were slow and too often gave the ball away cheaply. It was around 30mins in when a Callum Earl diagonal ball split the defence open. As the ball skidded through on the wet surface it ran away from Darren Clarke which gave the out rushing keeper a 50/50 challenge for the ball on the edge of the box. The ball bounced out of the challenge and into the recovering defenders knee into the goal, a lucky break for Fawley.
However this relaxed Fawley and meant that they started to play much better Football creating a couple of chances. One from a deep corner just tipped over an oncoming Darren Clarke by the goal keeper.
Downton’s only chance of the first half came during this period when a through ball played by the striker was expertly cut out by an alert Dan Gilroy.
Just before the break Fawley made there possession pay when Elliot Earl put an, outside of the boot ‘Colin Burdle’, pin point cross on Darren Clarke’s head to make it 2 0 at half time.
After the break Downton were the much better side now playing with the wind and rain on there backs. They forced 3 corners but did not create a chance during this time. Fawley hit on the counter attack when Ben Murray was slid in to calls of offside from the Downton Players. The one-on-one ended with Murray smashing the ball against the underside of the bar and the ball bouncing out. The ref then stopped the game to send off a Downton defender for foul language to the linesman.
However Downton were still the better team although down to 10 men but only having one shot on goal, a left foot volley from the edge of the box clipped the outside of the post.
After this, Fawley put together the best move of the match. Around 10 to 15 short passes down the right led to Matt Davidson to place a perfect through ball into Mark Ingram’s path for him to seal the game with the 3rd goal for Fawley.
Fawley saw the rest of the game out without any scares and notched up there first clean sheet of the season.
Overall a good start to the season for Fawley.

A great end to the season!