Match Report 2001/2002Linnets suffer second 'lightning strike'Saturday 2nd March 2002 :
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LEAGUE CUP |
Having had the league fixture previously scheduled for
this date altered to a cup match (the original was postponed four days
earlier), Lymington and New Milton now have a mountain to climb if they are to
progress to the final of the Wessex League Cup, after they were beaten 3-1 by
league and cup favourites Andover at Fawcett's Field. They were not helped in
their cause however by a refereeing decision that was the exact duplicate of an
event that occurred in last season's league match between these two
clubs.
The old saying has it that lightning does not strike twice in the
same place, and yet the circumstances of this particular event were so similar
as to be almost unbelievable. In the league match last season, Linnets' striker
Leigh Phillips received a ball played through the Andover defence that put him
one on one with their 'keeper, Kieron Drake. Having played the ball past Drake,
Phillips was hauled down unceremoniously by the Andover player in an attempt to
prevent him from scoring. Correctly, the referee awarded a penalty, from which
Phillips himself scored. Incorrectly (in the view of this observer), the
referee chose not to send Drake off but (after much deliberation with a
linesman), awarded him only a yellow card.
This time round, Phillips was
not playing (he was absent through suspension). However, once again the Linnets
beat a rigid Andover offside trap to put Steve Strong through one on one with,
(yes...you guessed it!), Kieron Drake. At the same end of the ground and in an
almost identical position, Strong played the ball beyond Drake and was
clobbered by the Andover 'keeper's 'clumsy' attempt to get the ball leaving him
with an injured shoulder. Again a penalty was awarded and again after a lengthy
delay (resulting from Strong's injury), the referee chose to issue only a
yellow card. In both cases Drake was the last line of defence. In both cases he
clearly committed fouls - hence the award of penalty-kicks on both occasions.
In such circumstances the only view that could be taken was that Drake had
committed a so-called 'professional' foul to deny the Linnets' a clear
goal-scoring opportunity which should have led to his dismissal.
Asked
for his interpretation after this game the referee, Mr. B. Whymark of
Southampton, offered the view that (in his opinion) Drake's challenge on Strong
would have meant that the Linnets' player would not have had a 'straight' run
on goal but would have been forced wide. Watching "The Premiership" on
television later that evening, I noted two instances from that day's matches
where players were forced to run 'wide' of the 'keeper to avoid his challenge.
On both occasions they scored, one of them almost from the corner-flag! The
implication of Mr. Whymark's observation was that he felt it was inconclusive
that a goal would have been scored. Agreed, this was not a Premiership match
and the players on view could not be expected to have the skill levels of their
Premiership equivalents. However, in the view of this observer, the referee's
interpretation could only be described, politely, as naive.
There again,
perhaps it is your reporter who is naive (or worse - biased!) but already this
season, several Wessex League managers have criticised the standard of
refereeing at this level. On the evidence of these two decisions, I can only
conclude that they have a case. Why make so much of the incident when Lymington
& New Milton lost the game anyway? Only because, if the full force of the
'law' had been applied in both cases the remainder of the match, with one side
reduced to ten men (whether or not they had a substitute 'keeper to call on),
would in all probability have been a "completely different ball game". Such are
the effects of refereeing decisions.
Having said all that, on the
evidence of the rest of the (11 against 11) game, Andover were worthy winners
and it was only as a result of some last-ditch defending by the home side that
the score was kept down to the level it was. The Linnets were missing some key
players for this cup tie, in particular strikers Leigh Phillips and leading
scorer Richie Glenister who, although named amongst the substitutes, was
clearly carrying an injury. Linnets' player-manager Graham Kemp felt that this
was a factor in their first leg defeat : "We've got the difficult job of having
to go to Andover now and get a 3 goal win, but if we can go there with a full
strength side we've got a chance," said Kemp.
"We missed Jimmy
Sheppard, Leigh Phillips and Richard Glenister terribly today and we've also
not had a game for ten days and I don't think that has done us any good.
They've played a lot of games in a short space of time and won a few games in a
row now and sometimes it's easier because you're on a roll of winning games
which becomes a good habit. We had a great performance against Wimborne
recently [in the quarter finals] but we never really reached those kind of
heights today and we needed to do that to get a result against someone like
Andover. We looked half a yard off the pace and I think that's due to not
having played for ten days."
In an opening quarter of an hour where the
visitors kept the Linnets firmly on the back foot Kearn had to make a
point-blank save to deny Andover's Asker. The Linnets then started to claw
themselves into the game. A cross from Smith produced a header by Tate that
grazed the visitor's cross bar and after twenty minutes Kemp's side took the
lead. As has already been noted, Steve Strong was brought down inside the
Andover penalty area and Steve Tate rammed home the resultant spot-kick
for a 1-0 lead. L&NM held onto their advantage until almost half-time, when
(ironically in the time added on to deal with Strong's injury) Webber finished
off a neat move by the North Hampshire side for a deserved equaliser. Strong,
playing as a makeshift striker, struggled through the latter part of the
first-half after the collision with Drake and had to come off at
half-time.
The Linnets, already missing the services of Paul Gazzard
and Jimmy Sheppard as well as prolific marksman Leigh Phillips, and with
Richard Glenister sitting on the bench but also carrying a knock, had Matt Town
[who has been absent from the first team for a couple of months following a
long-term injury] as the only recognised striker who could come on. However
both Town and fellow striker Tate were either isolated because of Andover's
almost continuous second-half pressure or to be found trying to assist a
hard-pressed Lymington & New Milton defence. The only clear cut chance the
Linnets had in the second period was when Mark Smith delivered the ball into
the danger zone for Gareth Keeping to try his luck, but his header landed
straight in the arms of the Andover keeper Drake.
After a period of
almost incessant pressure by the visitors, it seemed as though the home side
might just escape with an unlikely draw but with 20 minutes remaining Kennedy
raced clear for the visitors in a one on one situation with Stewart Kearn, who
avoided bringing his opponent down but also failed to stop him from advancing,
before slotting the ball into the net to put Andover into the lead. An
excellent piece of inter-play from Webber and Forbes resulted in the latter
adding a third to make life very difficult for Kemp's outfit in the return leg
on March 19th.
No doubt (unless something exceedingly strange
like the dismissal of a goalkeeper occurs), Andover will progress to the
final and presumably Drake will continue playing the 'percentage game' when
involved in one-on-ones. With the Linnets due to play Andover at least three
more times this season (in the league, the second leg of this tie and in a
Russell-Cotes affair), one can only hope for no further repeats of this
particular event.
Lymington & New Milton: Kearn, Drew, Green,
Kemp, Morris, Mooney, B. Phillips [Liddon 70], Smith, Tate, Strong [Town 45],
Keeping. Unused sub: Glenister.
Match reports on this site are based on those appearing in the New Milton Advertiser & Lymington Times (except where separately credited) with additional material from my own resources where relevant.
Online with the Linnets © Paul Johns MMII