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Sturminster
Marshall 4 Poole Borough 1
Stur Line-up:
1.Paul
Maitland, 2.Lloyd Bird, 3.John Elliott, 4. Craig MacLeod, 5.Stuart Revell,
6.Graham Duff, 7.Mark Henson, 8.Ross Humphrey, 9.Chris Johnson, 10.Dave
Clements, 11.Phil Sweetland
Substitutes:
12. Joe Wood
(for Sweetland 80), 14. Matt Jones
Goals:
Stur:
Humphrey (2), Elliot, Henson
Poole: OG
Star man:
Chris Johnson
Stur
outfought and out-thought their visitors from Turlin Moor and, in spite of
playing with ten men for the best part of an hour, deservedly took all three
points from an entertaining encounter with Poole Borough.
Both sides
were prepared to attack and there were early chances at both ends. Stur forwards
Chris Johnson and Dave Clements were combining well and, with Ross Humphrey
joining them from midfield, were causing all kinds of problems for the Borough
defence. Johnson was denied by a tremendous last ditch tackle on the quarter
hour mark, but Stur were not to be denied for long and Humphrey opened the
scoring in the 16th minute when he got clear of the visitor’s defence
and although his initial effort came back off the post, he was on hand to hit
home the rebound.
Borough were
stung by the setback and almost equalised straight away. Maitland managed to
keep out a low shot from Fooks at the second attempt and then had to get down
quickly to save a goal bound effort from Diaper.
Stur were
reduced to ten men when Clements saw red after 30 minutes. The home side quickly
reorganised and Johnson was left to plough a lonely furrow up front. On the
stroke of half time, Borough almost made their numerical advantage count when
Thomas found space in the box but his header from the edge of the six-yard area
just cleared the bar.
The home side
went into the half-time interval with a one-goal advantage, but that changed
almost immediately after the break. Within a minute of the restart Stur had
doubled their advantage. Mark Henson latched onto a through pass and coolly beat
the keeper and the covering defender to place the ball into the back of the net.
Five minutes later John Elliot made it 3-0 when he out muscled a Borough
defender and steered home a left wing cross. Borough were at sixes and sevens
and were left truly shell shocked when Humphrey pressed the keeper and the
attempted clearance ricocheted off the Stur player and looped over the keeper’s
head and into the back of the net.
Borough had no
chance but to push forward and introduced a third striker in a desperate attempt
to turn the game around. Maitland made a magnificent save when he pushed a low
shot round the post. Thomas met the resulting corner but his sharp downward
header hit the foot of the post. Borough were understandable dominating
possession, but Stur were still dangerous and Johnson was unlucky not to grab
the goal his selfless performance deserved when he bravely beat the advancing
Borough keeper to the ball, only to see his header come back off a post. Borough
pulled a goal back fifteen minutes from time when Henson sliced a right wing
cross into his own net.
The visitors
continued to dominate possession, but Stur’s battling spirit was tremendous and
they held on to take a well deserved three points.
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