To go
to Ton and come away with a point is always a satisfying result.
It was even more so as we had Luke Harrington sent off three
minutes into the second half and could have been awarded two
penalties. But the boys fitness and commitment in a stifling heat
couldn't be questioned.
We kicked off and some early indecision put us under pressure but
we managed to clear the ball. The ball was played to Andy Pearson
and his cross for Mark Jones was knocked behind for a corner.
Steve Parry took the corner and whipped it in with pace, the ball
glanced off the head of a Ton defender and flew into the net for
an ideal start. This unsettled Ton and there were several examples
in the match of panic defending by them. We gained another corner
on 9 minutes when we cleared a Ton attack and Steve Parry fed Mark
Jones, Mark won a throw which was played back to Steve and his
cross was turned behind for a corner which Andrew Pearson took but
knocked too long. We continued to take the game to Ton with Steve
Parry and Steve Davies both prominent in wide positions. On 16
minutes we again broke up a Ton attack fed Steve Davies whose pace
was frightening the defence, his cross was cut out at the expense
of yet another corner. Once again we caused panic in the defence
and a Luke Harrington header was headed off the line. Dan Williams
broke up a Ton attack and carried the ball 60 yards and fed Steve
Davies but his fierce shot missed the target. Again on 19 minutes
we broke up a Ton attack and Steve Parry hit a long diagonal pass
to Steve Davies who made ground but then shot over the bar. The
nearest Ton came to equalising was in the 26th minute when they
cut in from the left, beat the defence but fired wide. On the half
hour we had a free kick on half way which found Mark Jones and his
header was tipped over for a corner. Again there was panic in
their defence with one defender kicking the ball against another
and in the ensuing melee one of their players was injured, the ref
blowing to allow treatment and relieve the pressure. Ton had a
corner on 39 minutes which we cleared, Andy Pearson fed Steve
Parry who in turn found the overlapping Dan Williams but
unfortunately his first time shot ended way over the bar. Then
almost out of the blue Ton equalised when they picked up our goal
kick, Carl Evans made a superb block to deny a goal but the ball
fell kindly for them and Jonathan Kift rifled home a right footed
shot from just inside the area. We responded with Steve Davies
going down the right and crossing for Mark Jones to head in but
the assistant referee indicated the ball had already gone out for
a goal kick.
Both sides had corners in the early moments of the second half
neither causing the defending side much of a problem. However from
ours Ton broke and Carl Evans for once miskicked allowing Ton a
shot at goal but Wyn made an excellent save to keep the scores
level. Four minutes into the half disaster struck for us, Luke
Harrington and Alyn Jones chased after a ball that was played
towards the corner flag. From my angle I thought Jones had pushed
into the back of Luke, the ref blew and gave Luke a straight red
for use of the elbow. Discussing the incident after the match it
seemed that from different parts of the ground people had
different views of it and could understand the referee's decision
but it wasn't clear-cut. Obviously we now had to reorganise with
Steve Parry going to left back and Mark Jones being our lone front
man. From the resulting free kick Ton headed wide but on 55
minutes the ref took no action when there was a blatant dive by
them in front of our goal. To compound this Mark Jones was felled
in the area and again the ref took no action when all the Lido
supporters were begging for a decision. He did however give us a
free kick 25 yards out which was cleared. Unbelievably Mark Jones
was again felled in the box and even the Ton supporters thought we
were hard done by in not getting a penalty. Mark Jones was causing
the Ton defence all sorts of trouble with his strong running,
several times he had three or four in tow and on 66 minutes he
found Carl Edwards 30 yards out, Carl after what seemed an age
decided to have a shot. It was dipping just under the crossbar and
Marty Ellacott tipped it over at full stretch for yet another Lido
corner. Four minutes later Carl Edwards played the ball wide right
to Steve Davies, he made ground and shot only for Ellacott to
again save at full stretch. Dan Williams was injured on 73 minutes
and was replaced by Andrew Wright. Mark Jones had his shirt held
by a defender but once again we didn't get a free kick they won
the ball from this and made ground. Wyn again made an excellent
save to keep us in the game. On 77 minutes Ton had Ashley Evans
sent off for a second yellow card when he tackled Damon Thomas
from behind. With 6 minutes to go Mark Jones fed Steve Davies and
again his shot was saved at full stretch. With seconds remaining
Steve Parry fed Steve Davies but the Ton defence crowded him out
and when the final whistle came I think they were more than happy
with their point.
Lido side
Wyn Walters Dan Williams Craig Martin Luke Harrington Carl Evans
Carl Edwards Steve Davies Tom Wellington Mark Jones Andrew Pearson
Steve Parry
Subs 12 Corey Thomas for Carl Edwards 89
14 Andrew Wright for Dan Williams 73
15 Damon Thomas for Tom Wellington 68
16 Paul Evans not used
17 Brian Thomas not used.
Yellow cards Carl Edwards 13
Damon Thomas 86
Red cards Luke Harrington 49
Report by Peter
Reynolds. |
