Fareham Town (1 - 6) Win City
Fareham Town 1 Winchester City 6
On a windy Saturday facing a team second to bottom of the league and in desperate need of points, City faced a potential banana skin away at Fareham Town on 28th Match 2015. After seven minutes of the game it looked as if they had stepped on the skin!
Fareham started as they intended to carry on with nine at the back and a lone attacker at the front. The first time they crossed the halfway line in the 7th minute, they were awarded a free kick 40 metres out from City's goal. Bradley Norton thumped the ball goalwards and City were one down. Goalkeeper Gareth Barfoot never saw the ball until it hit the back of the net.
City dominated the rest of the half without really creating a good chance. Warren Bentley laid the ball off to Charlie Smeeton but his shot was wide, Zack Glasspool sliced wide and then had a good shot saved but that was it.
City's break came in the 43rd minute when Smeeton's shirt was pulled in the penalty box and the Referee had no hesitation in red carding the offender and sending him off. Bentley duly despatched the penalty kick for the equaliser.
Playing with the wind in the second half and against opponents who had only ten men, City exploited both to great effect. In the 52nd minute they took the lead. Smeeton pulled the ball back from the bye-line and Bentley headed the cross wide of the 'keeper.
Two minutes later City went two-up when a knockdown by Glasspool was perfect for Bentley to complete his hat trick and score his 50th goal of the season which he celebrated by uprooting the corner flag and waving it around, picking up an unnecessary booking!
Despite being in a pretty hopeless situation Fareham persisted with their blanket defensive policy and with no attacks being mounted the City defence were out of work. As a result Manager Paul Masters withdrew two defenders Ryan Holloway and Dominic Cope (who had a superb game more in attack than defence) replacing them with two attackers, Danilo Cadete and Liam Robertson who added pace to the attack.
Cadete combined well with Tazz Roberts on numerous occasions creating balls into the box and Robinson soon got on the scoresheet when he hit a poor clearance from the edge of the penalty area for goal number four (60th minute).
Fareham continued to defend as City poured forward and Stuart Green popped in the fifth goal after he burst out of midfield and hit a first timer past the floundering 'keeper.
The last substitution and making his City debut was Jake Newton who impressed immediately. Robinson snapped up City's fifth goal in the 74th minute heading home in a melee on the goal line.
To complete a brilliant day for City was the news that the President of the Southern League, Ken Turner, who watched the match with the City Committee Management team, confirmed that the Denplan Stadium had passed the ground grading inspection.
To add to the supporters delight they also discovered that their new signing is a Guyanian international having won 11 caps for his country. Jake made his debut for Guyana in 2008 against Cuba.
City: Gareth Barfoot, Ryan Holloway, Dominic Cope, Micky Hubbard, Jaimie Thoroughgood, Luke Dempsey, Adam Roberts, Stuart Green, Zack Glasspool, Warren Bentley, Charlie Smeeton, Danilo Cadete, Liam Robinson, Geoff Dunn, Adam Tomasso and Jake Newton.
