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Heavitree & Wonford USC 4-3 Up & Under |
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A much improved performance on last week despite the defeat, although, on a difficult playing surface, a draw would have been a fairer result. The first half was a reasonably even affair with the 1-1 score line at the break reiterated this. After a blunder in the UAU defence Heavitree took a 1-0 lead. It wasn't long before UAU mounted an attack of their own forcing the save of the half from the home goalkeeper when he dived low to his right to keep out Rob Mitchell's effort. The lack of potency in front of goal from the UAU strike force, in which chances were missed by Stuart Cook, Rob Southgate and Paul Hutchings, enabled Haevitree to keep their slender lead up until a minute before hal-time. Stuart Cook fed the ball through to Rob Southgate who was brought down by the opposing centre-half inside the area. Cook converted the spot-kick to level the scores going into the break.
The second half started well for the home team as they applied pressure to the UAU goal. They were rewarded, albeit dubiously, with a penalty after Dan Edmunds was harshly adjudged to have handled inside the area, which was despatched without any problem. The score then became 3-1 following a spectacular overhead kick. UAU failed to give up and the home keeper was in action again as he did well to keep out a 20 yard effort from Rob Southgate. The pressure soon told as Stuart Cook's long through was well flicked on by Paul Hutchings for Rob Southgate to lash home into the roof of the net to make it 3-2. UAU then committed the cardinal sin of conceding another goal straight after, allowing Heavitree to regain their two goal advantage, a long ball beat the whole defence and, from what could have been seen as a possible offside position, the ball was slotted neatly home to make it 4-2. A blatant professional foul on Rob Southgate saw the referee refuse to stick to the rule book as he decided not to send the offending defender off. five minutes later Start Cook's shot could only be parried into Rob Southgate's path for him to slot the ball in to make it 4-3.
Heavitree and Wonford managed to hang on for all three points and inflict UAU's first defeat of the season.
STAR MAN: Rob Southgate.
