Swanage 2 Sturminster Marshall 1

Stur Line-up:

1. Adam Tong, 2. Ryan Mole, 3. Lloyd Bird, (c) 4. Craig McLeod, 5. Stuart Revel,         6. David Hounsell,  7. Dan Lane,  8. Ross Humphrey,  9. Jez Pathak, 10. Luke Campion, 11. Phil Sweetland

Substitutes:

12 Luke McNally for Revel (80 min), 14. Mark Henson for Lane (45min), 15 Scott Thomas for Pathak (65 min)

Star man: Adam Tong

Stur Goal: Dan Lane

Stur went down to the odd goal in three at Days Park where it was very much a game of two halves.

On a difficult pitch neither teams were able to get the ball down play much nor as a result the game started off very scrappy. Manager Kevin Bowmer didn’t make the trip due to illness so Paul Maitland was put in charge for the fixture. Luke Campion who was making his full debut was offering the biggest threat to the opposition and was linking up well with Lane and Humphrey. At the other Adam Tong was making his debut on loan from Poole Town and had to be alert early with two good saves.

Halfway through the 1st half another move involving Campion and Lane saw the later score with a well placed lob over the advancing Hollywood in the swans goal. Having taken the lead Stur looked to impose themselves on the game and get the important second goal, but to no avail and the teams went in at half time with Stur one nil up.

Unfortunately Lane had to be replaced at half time due to an injury picked up just before half time and was replaced with Henson. Swanage came out fired up for the second half and began to take more control of the game with the impressive Lee James becoming more and more influential on the game. Stur never came out the second half and were unable to hold onto the ball, which was causing the defence to drop deeper and Tong was becoming increasingly busy in the Stur goal and made a series of great saves including an outstanding double save.

However he was powerless to stop the equaliser as a cross in from left side was missed by the oncoming attacking and defender, the ball struck the helpless Bird who could watch as the ball rolled into the corner of the net.

Another defensive mistake saw Briscoe have time to bring the ball down turn and fire into the top corner giving Tong no chance. At this point Maitland introduced Thomas to try and salvage a point for Stur, things took a turn for the worse when Revel had to come of injured and had to be replaced by McNally, within a minute Tong was stamped on by an opposing player and struggled to finish the game which put more pressure on Stur as they tried to protect the injured keeper.

Maitland was disappointed with the result after a promising first half display, he felt the players let themselves down in the second half and must learn to concentrate for the whole game.     

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