Match Report versus Holyport (26/2/22)

By Danny Dolan

Holyport 1 Tadley Calleva 3

Tadley arrived at Holyport with a strong 16 man squad to pick from and starting with a 4/4/2 formation on the back of only one defeat in their last six games.. It was very clear from the pitch condition that there would be very little quality football getting played today. On the 15 minute mark, Holyport's number nine, Ashley Hunt, had a chance which was well saved by the feet of Craig Atkinson and Brad Neal completed the clearance for the ball to be headed out for a throw in. As a result, Aaron Parfitt delivered a long throw for Brett Denham to head home from eight yards out to make it 1-0 to the visitors. Tadley went on to dominate the half with Ben Wright going close from distance to win a corner....after an excellent save from home keeper Fred Chapman. From the resulting corner Brad Neal headed narrowly wide of the target. On the half hour mark Ben Wright saw his shot from distance again pushed round the post by Chapman. This time Aaron Parfitt scored directly from the resulting corner kick to make it 2-0. Tadley comfortably saw out the remainder of the half to go in at the break with a deserved two goal lead.

At the start of the second half Ousman Darboe found Callum Cleary who after going past fullback Geoff Kibaki delivered an excellent cross to find Ben Wright, but his effort went narrowly wide. On 55 minutes, Holyport played a long ball over the top into the box where Brad Neal went across the striker and looked to have won the ball cleanly. However, the referee saw it differently and awarded a penalty to the hosts. Ashley Hunt stepped up and scored from the spot to make it 2-1. With Holyport growing in confidence from the goal, Tadley decided to make a change. Lucas Burt was replaced by Ryan Stephens who went on to give the home defence another headache to deal with. With very little quality football being played, Tadley changed to a 4/3/3 formation with Scott Kinge replacing Callum Cleary and he slotted into central midfield with Parfitt and Darboe. Tadley now operating with a front three of Denham, Wright and Stephens. Tadley made their final substitution with Kalum Cousins replacing Brett Denham on 80 minutes. The game looked to be over, but with only a one goal deficit Holyport applied late pressure and it almost paid off in added time. A long throw in into our box was flicked towards the back post and with Atkinson beaten the impressive Parfitt cleared the ball off the line. Tadley sealed the points deep into added on time. Andrew Charsley found the feet of Kalum Cousins who slotted in Ryan Stephens and with just the keeper to beat unselfishly passed the ball to Ben Wright to side foot into an empty net to make it 3-1.

Tadley Calleva: Craig Atkinson, Andrew Charsley, Jacob Rolfe, Brad Neal (C), Kieran Maylen, Lucas Burt (sub 76' Scott Kinge), Aaron Parfitt, Ousman Darboe, Brett Denham (sub 80' Kalum Cousins), Ben Wright, Callum Cleary (sub 65' Ryan Stephens).

Unused Subs: Jordan Goater, Aiden Harris