Match Report versus Wembley (9/4/22)

By Danny Dolan

Wembley 0 Tadley Calleva 4

We arrived at Wembley on the back of a poor result at home to Windsor the previous Tuesday night and were looking to get back to winning ways with a strong 16 man squad to pick from. Joint Managers Ben Dillon and Joe Lawler took the opportunity of rotating the starting line up with Aiden Harris, Andrew Charsley, Jordan Goater and Brody Peart all returning. It has to be said, the pitch at Vale Farm was also, without doubt, the best playing surface we have had the pleasure of playing on this season.

We started the game on the front foot and, after only a matter of minutes, Callum Cleary fired a shot just wide of the post after good work from full back Aiden Harris. However, we didn't have to wait too long for the opener. On 8 minutes, quick play from Craig Atkinson found Aiden Harris breaking quickly into the Wembley half. Harris played a superb diagonal pass to striker Ben Wright who looped the ball over keeper Jermain Heron into the far corner of the net to make it 0-1. The second soon followed, Cleary was cynically brought down on the edge of the penalty area by Oscar Egboh for a free kick to Tadley. Egboh was probably fortunate that he only saw a yellow card as it appeared Cleary was clean through on goal. Ben Wright stepped up and fired the free-kick high past the despairing dive of Heron for his second of the match. The home side were struggling to get a foothold in the match and found it difficult to break through a well organised Tadley defence. Their only real chance came after 20 minutes when the referee's drop ball was hit first time on the half volley by Mitchell Brown, but fortunately for us his clever effort bounced back off the crossbar with keeper Atkinson beaten. Tadley were dominating possession and playing some neat football and were unlucky not extend their lead on 30 minutes after some excellent build up play between Andrew Charsley, Brody Peart and Jack French, which resulted French's driven shot being superbly saved by keeper Heron. The decisive third goal came on the stroke of half time. A corner on the right was cleared back out to Jordan Goater who whipped a left foot cross back into the box for Brad Neal to powerfully head home. (HT 0-3)

The second half started in similar fashion to the first and Tadley soon scored goal number four on 52 minutes. Jack French found Callum Cleary out wide who delayed his cross before picking out Brad Neal to nod home from 6 yards out. Midway through the half skipper Tom Walsh was replaced by Jacob Rolfe and Jordan Goater replaced by Scott Kinge. Substitute Kinge was soon into the action and almost scored, but his first time shot went narrowly wide of the far post. To be fair to the home side they did continue to work hard, trying to find a way to get themselves back into the match. However, they also really struggled to trouble Craig Atkinson in the Tadley goal. Their best second half effort fell to substitute Qasim Khan after he was set up by Mahad Osman, but his shot went high and wide of the target. On 68 minutes, only an excellent piece of defending by Wayne Walters prevented Wright from completing his hat-trick. Kalum Cousins, Marc Vockins and Kieran Maylen, replaced Darboe, Harris and Charsley respectively for the final 20 minutes. However, Tadley failed to add to the score line, with Cousins and Peart probably having the better of the opportunities late on. (FT 0-4)

Joint Managers Ben Dillon and Joe Lawler were delighted with the performance and the result. Lawler adding "it was good to quickly get back on the pitch and back to winning after the disappointment of Tuesday night. We lost heavily at home to Wembley earlier in the season so we knew beforehand we would be in for a difficult game. Coming away winning 4-0 and playing some really good football was very pleasing and a measure of the significant progress that we have made as a squad".

Tadley are back on the road next Saturday to face Egham Town, kick-off 3pm.

Tadley Calleva: Craig Atkinson, Aiden Harris (sub 78' Marc Vockins), Tom Walsh (C) (sub 64' Jacob Rolfe), Brad Neal, Andrew Charsley (sub 78' Kieran Maylen), Jordan Goater (sub 64' Scott Kinge), Jack French, Ousman Darboe (sub 73' Kalum Cousins), Brody Peart, Ben Wright, Callum Cleary