Sarum Youth Seniors were desperately unlucky to come away with nothing on Saturday after an entertaining game and were only thwarted by some crucial and harsh decisions by the officials. Trowbridge were also a young side which made for a very high tempo game but one that Sarum should have won.
Both teams started the game with a real tempo to stop each other playing but Sarum just had the edge. Sarum created a few half chances and managed to keep the away side to shots from distance to help protect stand in keeper Danny Cousins. The first half was a tight affair but it was Sarum who eventually took the lead after the lively Mitch Alford intercepted a back pass to go round the keeper and slot home. Sarum continued on the front foot until half time with a deserved lead after a good first half of football from both teams.
The second half continued in the same way. The tempo from both sides was high but again Sarum just had the upper hand. Chances were at a premium as both sides struggled to create clear cut chances. With ten mins left the game completely changed after some strange decisions from the ref which were to cost Sarum dear. Sarum thought they had the game just about won with a chance to get a second when Dan Paddington burst into the box and was wiped out for a blatant penalty which the linesman also flagged for but to everyones amazement the ref waved everybody away and played on. This led to a quick break from the away side who went up the other end and a shot on target was deflected of Josh Hockey and into the net. To make matters worse for Sarum the away side were then given a penalty for an awful dive in the box which the ref gave. The aftermath of this penalty award saw keeper Cousins sent off for dissent. Archie Lovegrove went in goal and was unlucky not to save the penalty after getting a hand to it. Sarum feeling extremely hard done by laid seige to the Trowbridge goal in the remaining mins and to sum up their day Paddington smashed a great shot which bounced back off the bar and to safety to give the away side all three points.
Rawkins....... ” I felt gutted for the players today, they had done their job with a really hard working performance but were badly let down by the officials. I don't like criticising referees and very rarely do but they got it wrong today which cost us the win and three points. If we had got our blatant penalty to go two up late on im sure we would have seen the game out but then to give one to Wanderers for a clear dive was hard to take. The players deserved a lot more today after yet another good performance.
