The game went ahead despite some concern over the state of the goalmouth at the Town End of the ground, and with constant drizzle throughout and then rather heavier rain towards the end, the conditions underfoot deteriorated. The hosts were forced to bring in a change of goalkeeper with the veteran Russell Goodman stepping in, and he was the harder worked of the two custodians tonight.

Fawley had the first chance on seven minutes when Kieron Earl created an opening and the ball wasn?t cleared properly falling to Renyard who shot on the turn to see Goodman stretch to palm the ball away.

The hosts had an opportunity to grab an opener on 12 minutes when Hardy?s run was stopped by Renyard; Greaves? quick free kick though saw nobody attack the ball and Fawley broke. Unfortunately the game was littered with wayward passing, and many chances desperately wanted a good final ball.

The game was quite end to end, a shot from McEveley was parried by Goodman, who quickly released the ball and almost straight away the ball came to Fleet at the other end but his shot was off target. Moments later Fleet took advantage of a miscued clearance by Dickens, but his shot hit the side netting.

Half an hour in, Keighley had a couple of efforts and managed to force a corner in one try but the defence held firm. Within minutes at the other end Yeats made a timely challenge to stop the danger from Hardiman as he was lining up his strike from around 20 yards out.

Goodman was again on hand on 38 to deny McEveley?s long range effort, and Sprague had a similar long range shot that was bundled away from danger but only came back to Sprague, this time the shot fell off a defender and Fleet was on hand to pick off the goal.

Into the second period, Plank had an early opportunity to equalise stopped by Greaves, and just five minutes into the half, Hardiman took the ball to the goal line and pulled it back for Plank to drive it home low from around 12 yards out to level the scores.

Ringwood then had a chance to get their second when a sweeping attack was broken up by Jennings.

Fawley began to get on top of the game as time went on, and with 66 minutes gone Plank was fractionally offside when shaping up to shoot and Hardiman was a constant threat to the home defence.

Around the 72nd minute Gates fired in a long range effort that was punched away with Goodman under strong pressure, and was grateful to see the resulting follow up shot crash over the bar with Goodman well beaten.

The visitors grabbed their second on 77 minutes. McEveley made a good run up the flank up the stand side and his cross in fell back to skipper Earl whose shot took a slight deflection as it flew into the net.

Even at this late stage Ringwood had another opportunity to get a second when Howes? cross missed everyone and Keighley?s subsequent follow up was smothered by the defence.

With time running out Fawley grabbed a third when Burrett miss hit his clearance and Fawley picked up the ball wide left. In a repeat of their opener, it was Plank who returned the compliment with his cross cracked home by Hardiman to wrap up the points.



Written by: Mike Robins

FAWLEY TAKE THE HONOURS

Definitely a game of two halves with the Blues hanging on for dear life in the first period but a spirited second half almost saw them claim a point. Skipper Neil Sole returned to the starting line up with Dave Mariner slotting in on the left in place of the absent Lukasz Labedzki.

From the outset the Oilers pushed the Blues onto the back foot and Brendan McEverley tested Danny Harrison with a stinging drive which the keeper did well to turn around the post. Then Alex Bracher cut in from the left and saw his strike rebound from the cross bar.

The home side looked dangerous every time they pushed forward and were guilty of wasting several opportunities before the inevitable happened and the Blues scored against the run of play. Chris Berntsen played the ball on to NIC TURPIN and his clever, skilful flick wrong footed his marker and he ran on before unleashing a powerful low strike which had too much pace on it for Oilers keeper Dan Parker.

It seemed that Fawley would never score in a month of Sundays despite their chances. McEverley chipped Harrison but the ball went agonisingly the wrong side of the upright and the Blues then cleared a goal bound effort from the goal line as they battled to retain their lead at the break.

Finally however Fawley managed to find the back of the Blues net even though it took an Amesbury player to actually put the ball over the line. Tom Hardiman struck a strong close range shot which cannoned off the cross bar and the ball was played back in to the danger area where Blues defender CHRIS SMITH, under pressure from Ian Moore, could only hit the ball into the roof of the goal.

It was no more than Fawley deserved as they could easily have gone in at the break four or five goals to the good. After the battering of the first period, however, the Blues looked more confident after the restart and very quickly they had two good chances to regain the lead. Firstly Parker came out well to claim the ball when it looked like Turpin would score after he was played through by Lance Cooper. Then Cooper found himself in the clear but Parker made a magnificent save to deny him.

The home side were not the dominant force they had been before the interval but 20 minutes into the half they took the lead with what would prove to be the winning goal. Hardiman cut into the box from the left and squirmed his way clear before playing the ball low across the face of the goal where IAN MOORE scored with ease from close range.

At the other end Danny Finnigan nearly got on the end of a Sole header and Smith went close with two headers, the first of which brought a superb save from Parker. Finally though, as with the Blues previous game at Bemerton, it was a case of a poor first half display and a battling second 45 minutes which resulted in defeat.

Fawley
Dan Parker, Elliott Earl, Ryan Matthews, Wayne Harvey, Aaron Jennings (sub Shane Renyard 51), Brendan McEveley (sub Matthew Plank 75), Tom Gates (sub Darren Clarke 79), Kieron Earl, Alex Bracher, Tom Hardiman, Ian Moore

Amesbury Town
Danny Harrison, Mark Johnson, Chris Smith, Neil Sole (capt), Ben Pryce, Nathan Jones (sub Shaun Bartlett 88), Lance Cooper, Danny Finnigan, Dave Mariner (sub Lee Bartlett 63),Nic Turpin, Chris Berntsen (sub Grant Thirkell 84)
Referee
David Beamont (Bournemouth)
Assistants
Austin Adams (Bishopstoke) & Nick Turner (Southampton)


Written by: Tony Hinchiffe ATFC
Last Changed By: Roger Allen SUN 18 JAN 2009 12:15