Foxhole 3 Millbrook 1

[Darin Morse]

Foxhole 3 Millbrook 1

Saturday 14th March 2009

While Foxhole made hard work of this victory, the destiny of the points was rarely in doubt as a young Millbrook team were forced to defend for virtually the whole match. Facing a strong breeze, the Foxes soon began to expose the frailties of the pedestrian visiting rearguard, but a succession of chances went begging as stand-in keeper Bonney was able to deal comfortably with scuffed or wayward shots. All Foxhole had to show for their first half dominance came on 21 minutes when Friendship cleverly released Griffin down the left, and his cross was headed home by makeshift centre-forward Rowe, Bonney perhaps being deceived both by the wind and the sun. Nicholls, Rowe and Butler may all have extended the advantage but Errington was to come closest, his effort after a neat turn crashing against the bar.

Within 4 minutes of the restart, Foxhole doubled their lead when Butler's corner was met by the head of Bromley, and Rowe almost added an immediate third but a rare counter-attack involving Ferguson resulted in Curran beating Holland after 55 minutes. A crazy 120 seconds then led to totally unnecessary cautions for May and Griffin (dissent) and Rowe (retaliation) but, having regained their composure, the Foxes again pinned back the visitors. Bromley nodded Rowe's centre past the upright, Butler fired wide when clean through, Swiggs twice cleared headers from Griffin off the line and Friendship blazed over with the net gaping before the win was finally sealed with 3 minutes remaining. Warne's deep free-kick was missed by the keeper, and Rowe was quickest to react when the ball rebounded from the bar to complete a hat-trick of headers for the Foxes.

Foxhole (4-4-2): Ryan Holland 6; Matt May 6, Jason Warne 7, Adam Holland 7, Phil Hobbs 6; Andrew Butler 6, Richard Griffin 6, Kyle Friendship 6, Adam Bromley 7 (sub. Lewis Prince 5); Liam Nicholls 6, Mark Rowe 7 (sub. Aydan Rundle 5).

Millbrook (4-4-2): Shaun Bonney; Ryan Swiggs, Adam Casey, Andy Hobbs (sub. Mark Oram), Matt Thackeray; Jamie Rose, Lewis Ashford (sub. Mike Thackeray), Leighton Bartlett, Ben Ferguson; Craig Errington, Chris Curran.

Referee: Mr Kevin Knowles (Mabe Burnthouse) 8.