Wealdstone 0 – 1 Yate Town
Wealdstone0 - 1
Yate TownTwo defeats in a week have shown weaknesses in Stones abilities, as the first was a 1-0 home defeat to Yate Town in a very poor game, the visitors snatching the only goal midway through the second half. ,
Both games were played without Lee Carroll in goal as he serves a three match suspension, but continuing the run of luck from last year, Mirch Swain who deputised on Saturday broke a finger and Luke Woods is still injured from Pre-Season, so Stones Manager Gordon Bartlett had to turn to his fourth keeper, John Armand in the emergency.
Wealdstone: Mitch Swain, Lee Holland S Julian Edwards, Fergus Moore, Kevin Swift, Stuart Bamford, Gavin Bamford, John Christian S Stuart Goodhall, Chris O’Leary, Dean Papali, Matt Gooderick S Dave Lawrence, Graeme Montgomery. Subs Not Used: Chris Zoricich, Billy Sentence
Harrow Times Steve Paull
Youthful Mitch Swain was making his debut in the Wealdstone goal in place of the suspended Lee Carroll. Whilst lacking the presence and confidence of the first choice keeper, he did well, only making a single error when spilling a shot after half an hour and following which Cox lashed the loose ball wide.
By now Wealdstone were beginning to press forward themselves and passes were starting to reach their targets. Alas they were having difficulty finding the ultimate target, and before the half reached its conclusion Fergus Moore had headed a corner over, Gavin Bamford had fired a dipping 30 yard effort also over and Dean Papali had shot wide.
Court in the Yate goal finally had a shot to save with an hour on the clock, albeit a weak effort from Graeme Montgomery, but spilled another weak effort from Dave Lawrence soon after and was extremely fortunate to see it dribble past a post.
Almost 70 minutes had passed when the deadlock was broken. Wood’s run and strike was worthy of a goal in itself but Swain was able to beat the shot away. Unfortunately for the keeper, the ball fell perfectly for Cox and Yate were in front.
Earlier Wealdstone substitutions had failed to change the general feeling of a team misfiring, and it took a good save by Swain from an effort by Seal to stop Yate going further ahead five minutes from time.
A draw would still have been the fairest result, however, but when Julian Edwards headed a cross from Stuart Goodall wide in the last minute the Wealdstone faithful knew it was not to be.
Wealdstone: Swain, Holland (Edwards 75), Moore, Swift, S Bamford, G Bamford, Christian(Goodall 50), O’Leary, Papali, Gooderick (Lawrence 56), Montgomery.