Sydenhams Wessex League

Poole Town 1 Winchester City 1

Manager Steve Tate saw his side for the first time in his eight match City managerial career fail to record a victory. Not one of City’s better performances but a spirited display by the home side who had the previous week been dumped out of the Hampshire Senior Cup by Alresford Town.
City’s new signing Vince Rusher had to be content to start on the substitutes bench, whilst Ian Buckman returned to the side after missing our last week with work commitments, but Liam Green was missing with a hamstring injury, Stewart Lang being recalled to the centre of defence.

In a bruising encounter Poole lost their debutant Mick Brown on a quarter of an hour, someone the home side have great hopes for after signing from Combined Services. City were being harried and chased for every ball and facing a rigid Poole Town back line. Ian Mancey did have the ball in the back of the net on seventeen minutes only for the effort to be disallowed for offside.

Midway through the opening half Ryan Woolfenden fired the ball across the face of the City goal and Lang looked relieved when his attempt to clear the ball just cleared the upright for a corner. The only other worthwhile chance of the opening half was four minutes before the interval when Poole substitute Richard Glenister shot over from ten yards out following a cross from former City player Stuart Brown who was filling an unaccustomed right wing role.

Poole started the second half brightly with Leigh Phillips heading over within a minute of the restart. Mancey had the ball in the back of the net again after fifty-five minutes but the same linesman’s flag that had ruled out the striker’s goal in the first half was on show again to keep the game scoreless.

The City support felt relieved when they did eventually add a goal to their name on fifty-eight minutes. A free kick from the left flank almost identical to a corner saw Shaun Dyke float the ball to the far post where skipper Mark Jones rose highest to head the ball home.

Two minutes later and the home side were reduced to ten men when Ryan Woolfenden saw a second yellow and then red for a number of dangerous challenges throughout the afternoon. City should have made certain of the game. A minute after the dismissal, Tommy McCormick’s ball into the area saw Jamie Musselwhite scramble the ball wide of the target.

Seventy-two minutes, Dyke and McCormick worked a short free kick between them, McCormick’s cross saw Christer Warren rise to head the ball across the face of goal. The home side were issuing warnings all the time. Having regrouped fifteen minutes remained David Hook clawed the ball away after Mat Davies had miscued the ball following Phillips lay back across the goal from Gary Funnells free kick.

McCormick and Dyke combined in another free kick situation with ten minutes left, the ball arrived for Rusher who saw his shot hit the post, the rebound falling for Warren who saw Brown clear the ball off the line.

With City being forced back in the closing minutes, Funnell shot over from twenty yards then in the first minute of stoppage time Poole Town drew level. Funnells corner to the near post caught City napping and Glenister was the most alert to turn home a header for the equaliser and deny City all three points.

Poole Town : Spillane, White (Chivers 87), Spalding (Bayston 89), Whiteley, Bartlett, M Brown (Glenister 17), Funnell, Richardson, Phillips, S Brown, Woolfenden Unused subs Hounsell, Harris

Winchester : Hook, Buckman, Bicknell, Mark Jones, Lang (Rusher 68), Davies, Dyke, McCormick, Mancey, Musselwhite, Warren Unused subs Thomson, Lilley, Kneller, Zawadski