Div6: Chawton Athletic 1 West Liss 4

Chawton Athletic welcomed ex-Farnham League rivals, West Liss (formerly Bluebell) to the Recreation Ground but allowed the visitors to take all three points away with them.


Athletic got off to a good start, setting about controlling the game.  West Liss were being limited to long shots and it was the home side that looked like they would take the lead.

James Russell, who's chundering
 was a particular highlight!

Indeed it was Chawton that took first blood.  From midfield, Paul Nicholson took the ball and went on a mazy run down the right.  He smashed a shot from fully twenty five yards which pinged over the away side's keeper and into the top left corner.  It was a lead that Chawton fully deserved.

The Liss side did manage a few shots on target, but Skilts in goal was equal to them.  They nearly equalised when the Liss left winger broke free and pinged a dangerous ball across the box.  Skilts knocked the ball out to their striker, but he found his shot cleared off the line by an excellent block from Matt "Wonka" Stevens.

The away side did equalise mid way through the first half, when a pass into the centre of the box allowed the striker to pick his spot, despite Skilts best efforts at getting a hand to it.

Luke Ingram takes on West Liss' defence.

Athletic tried to force their way into the lead again, with Paul Nicholson dinking a lovely pass forward from Ben Hodkin to run onto, but Hodkin's shot was saved well by the Liss keeper.

West Liss took an undeserved 1-2 lead into half time, when they scored again five minutes before the break.  Completely against the run of play, they broke forward and the ring winger crossed for a completely unmarked man at the far post to tap home an easy second.

They were unlucky not to have gone 1-3 up too, when the referee deemed a heavy challenge in the box not to be a foul.  They did win the corner, but the home side's defence cleared.  The score remained 1-2 at half time.

James Harvey feels the burn!

The second half, against the wind, Chawton lost their way a little with West Liss adding two more goals.  The half was more even, but Liss looked dangerous going forward against a makeshift defensive line-up which had seen winger Pat Cross come on at centre back!

Chawton did have the ball in the net though, but it was correctly ruled offside, as Nathan Teague had allowed himself to get ahead of Hodkin's cross pass needlessly.

Ultimately it did not matter and the match ended 1-4.

A good first half performance was undone by two pieces of poor play allowing Liss to smash and grab their goals.  The wind with the away side evened the game up in the second, but a slightly lacklustre performance up front meant the ball kept coming back at the Athletic defence.

Paul Nicholson, man of the match.

James Harvey performed well in a defensive centre midfield role, giving the team some balance that had been missing and Luke Ingram on either wing put the effort in and never stopped running.  Man of the match though went to Paul Nicholson, with another superb effort in the middle of the park going forward.  Hopefully his effort will be rewarded with a win when these two sides meet this Sunday in the cup match!


Meet at Mark and Spencers' carpark at 09:25 on Sunday.  Fines are in operation!