Southampton Women's first team met with Bracknell from the national league in a
pre-season friendly on Saturday. For the first 20 minutes Bracknell showed their
quality with two excellent goals coming from a stream of short corner. The first
was a neat deflection around the keeper and the second a straight drive from a
rebound. Keeper Linda Dunham bringing off a series of spectacular saves kept Southampton
in the game. Southampton reorganised and started to create scoring chances of their own
and just before half time Sue Crowley gathered the ball on the half way line, took route
one to goal and hit an unstoppable shot passed the Bracknell keeper for a 2-1 half time
scoreline. The second half was once again in Bracknell's favour with Southampton defence
working hard to clear ball from defence. Bracknell got their reward when a third short
corner was converted for a final scoreline of 1 - 3.
Southampton however were not disappointed with this result against a team from a higher
division and proven pedigree.
The thirds enjoyed a comfortable 5 - 0 victory over a depleted Chichester side. Goals coming from Beth Davies, Sophie Mitchell and Sarah Deighton.
The fourths also met with Chichester and won 4 - 1.
It was Pete Spencer's day as the men's first team met with Salisbury and recorded a 5 - 1 victory. Spencer was on target for all five goals, three coming from open play and two from short corners.
The seconds however suffered a reversal against Salisbury seconds, losing 2 - 3 with Eric Holt and Chris Ellis scoring for Southampton .
The thirds, without skipper Mark Day, lost by the odd goal in three to Newbury seconds. Final score 1 - 2.
The fourths went 1 - 0 down to Oxted before rebounding to claim a 4 - 1 victory with Dave Holt [2], Mike Woods and John Carnegie scoring.
The Vets, meeting with a youthful Lavant side, made a dramatic comebacks to grab a 3 - 3 draw. Despite taking an early lead through Keith finch they trailed 1 - 2 at half time and then fell 1 - 3 behind early in the second. However a good set piece move at a short corner let Andy church in to bring one back before Pete Terry equalised late in the game.
The Masters were up against a younger and fitter Blandford side comprising mainly first and second eleven players. The game was well balanced with both teams creating good scoring opportunities. Unfortunately Southampton early season finishing was not quite as sharp as it could have been, going down eventually 3 - 0. All in all it was a good pre-season tester and the team is coming together quite well with a number of new faces and re-emerging faces to fit in.
Despite netting twice the Otters could not hold Andover 3s, who went on to win 2 - 4. Danny Morgan and Phil Loukes scoring for Southampton.
Winchester V Southampton 5ths.
Winchester opened the scoring when a cross was deflected into the Southampton net
by a defender. Good play from Southampton, just after half time, created scoring
opportunities and David Jackson converted a Martin Rosher cross for the first and
then Simon Brownlie finished off some fine work by Mark Cozens. The game looked
over but Winchester took advantage of confusion between umpires to score for a
final score of 2 - 2. A promising performance that will hopefully bode well
for the coming league season.
First game back after the summer break saw the 6XI playing league rivals Fareham 5s. Half way through the first half saw Fareham score their of four after a kick out by Colin Munday hit an attacker's stick and rebounded into the goal. Two more goals one just before half time and another about 10 minutes into the second half sadly put pay to Southampton's revival plans.
Managing to pull the score line back to 1 - 3 after a quick free hit, taken by Mike Cotton
centred the ball in the D where Luke Knight diverted the ball over the stranded keeper.
5 Minutes from the end of the game, Fareham scored again making the score line look respectable.
The deficit could have been a lot more without fine saves from Colin Munday, [the captain's man of the match]
one of which was from a penalty flick.
Final Score 1-4
On Sunday the Hampshire under 16 girls area tournament was held at Southampton Sports Centre.
Mid Hants were the eventual winners after drawing with South East and beating Fareham and Gosport, North East, New Forest,
North West and Isle of White.
Mid Hants squad :- Clare Lewis, Louise Jeffcock, Kathryn Raw, Kerry Brown, Amanda Royle, Beth Davies {capt],
Katie Grange, Caroline Field, Hannah Pearce, Harriet Richards, Kirsten Cox, Lindsay Smallman, Hannah Shaw,
Alex Parvin and Abby Purkiss.
Roger Merry