SOFCA FROZEN OUT BY WYNTER
Wynter v Sutton O’Neills
SOFCA kicked off this difficult away game missing several players including the influential Harry Simpson. It was a high octane start with both teams going on the attack. On the 9th minute it looked like Sofca would go ahead when Ben Donaldson was fouled in the penalty area. Duncan Garnett stepped up to take the penalty but he put the ball too close to Wynter’s keeper who managed to get his foot to the ball to clear. The match continued at pace with both sides coming close from free kicks. As in recent weeks Andy Dodson worked hard all over the pitch, with Duncan Garnett and James Murray both putting pressure on the opposition. The first goal came for Wynter on 35 following a free kick which led to a goalmouth scramble. 3 minutes later Sofca’s defence was overstretched and Aaron Holmes, who otherwise had a good game, was forced to handle in the area to give away a penalty. Wynter duly scored from the spot to make it 2-0. On 41 minutes, the Sutton defence was again stretched and Dan Yeoman handled in the area conceding another penalty, and getting a yellow card in the process. The resultant penalty was struck against the post to keep the score at 2-0. Sofca had matched and sometimes outplayed the second placed team for much of the half and were unlucky to go in behind.
The second half kicked off with the same intensity as the first. Sofca’s reward came in the 50th minute when Duncan’s excellent through ball was picked up by Ben Donaldson whose shot rocketed in to the top right corner to reduce the deficit. Sutton pressed for the equaliser for the next 10 minutes, but failed to make any headway. In a counter attack Wynter scored again in the 64th to make it 3-1.
Dave Henderson came on for Ben Singh before the restart and Sutton battled to get back into the game, but with 14 minutes to go Wynter got a free kick scoring their 4th and effectively putting the game out of sight.
Robin Garnett came on for Duncan with 13 minutes to go but the tiring midfield was unable to feed the strikers with any decent opportunities and the game petered out without any further goals. This was a poor result which did not accurately reflect Sutton’s performance, but with their level of effort and enthusiasm there is no reason why they should not get a better result next week.
Man of the match: Andy Dodson
Report by Robert
