Salisbury City 3 -1 Wealdstone
Salisbury City
3 - 1
WealdstoneOn the last Saturday of the season, Stones were beaten 3-1 at Salisbury – despite a decent performance early on and forcing the home side to clear their lines. Defensive frailties conceded another goal on 9 minutes and a Jolly penalty miss somewhat knocked the heart out of the comeback.
With ten minutes or so to go, Robin Tucker scored from a Brian Jones free kick – perhaps the home keeper should have done better – but it turned out to be a very important goal, as had the score finished 3-0, Wealdstone would have been relegated and Cheshunt would have survived.
Points the same and goal difference the same, it came down to goals scored – Wealdstone had scored two more – ironically i suppose Tucks had scored the last two in similar style, both in defeats, but it was enough to see Stones stay up.
After a season of highs and lows, if we had been offered this finish at the start of the season with a limited budget we would have taken it, but I hope players and management look back at the season and ask themselves why a nine game winless run dragged us back into the mire – the team proved on a number of occasions that they were good enough to compete with the best, yet at other times they would have struggled in the local park.
There is no doubt that the ability is there in the squad and the side. Perhaps after a summer rest, players and management alike will come back refreshed and prove it.
Harrow Times – Steve Spaull
WEALDSTONE survived relegation by the skin of their teeth.
In a tense afternoon, where communication to the other affected teams’ games was paramount, two goals scored was the meagre difference between Wealdstone and Cheshunt after their points and goal difference finished exactly equal.
Stones once again lost making schoolboy errors and conceding unnecessary goals.
After starting brightly and with Jermaine Beckford going close in the second minute, the home side’s first attack produced a goal. On eight minutes, a free-kick in a dangerous position was taken quickly, and Phillips beat Andy Carter with a low cross-shot.
No Stones player stood over the ball as the defence got organised. It’s not strictly gentlemanly, but all sides do it except, it seems, Wealdstone.
Too their credit, heads didn’t drop and for the next twenty minutes Wealdstone dominated, getting a penalty when Widdrington felled Brian Jones.
A mere yellow for kicking the ball at the assistant referee seemed a lenient punishment. It was followed by the weakest of spot kicks from Richard Jolly which Sawyer saved easily.
This failure affected Stones’ brittle confidence and game became a contest.
Scores elsewhere still kept Wealdstone up but, despite trying to get forward, the defence was coming under increasing pressure.
Carter was hurt attempting to retrieve a back pass and Robin Tucker cleared a header from Davies off the line, before goal number two came just after the hour.
Once again, it was all too familiar for long-suffering Wealdstone supporters. A long ball over the left side of a slow Wealdstone defence allowed Tubbs to run unchallenged and fire a powerful shot past Carter.
Tucker reduced the deficit to one when back-heading a Jones free-kick over the advancing Sawyer, but soon after Davies made it 3-1 with a replica of his teammate’s second.
With a lot of stoppage time and the results of the other games known, another goal conceded would have seen Wealdstone relegated.
But the defence held firm and Beckford had the last word with a sharp shot that hit the post.
Safety was assured but nobody knew whether to be happy or disgusted. Wealdstone had won just two points out of their last 27…