MATCH REPORT - vs Portland United FC

Portland United 0 - 3 Cowes Sports

Date: Saturday 15th February

Location: Camp & Satherly Stadium, Portland

The bus-journey quiz was ready, the early boat was booked, it was time to take our longest trip in the season to Portland where we looked to take another 3 points off a surprisingly-struggling Portland who have for a long-time been one of the top teams in the Wessex Premier League.

Portland set about the game by allowing our backline to have the ball and keep their shape, it was as if they had learned from our previous match that pressing against our defenders rarely worked considering how good a ball players they all are. The first piece of action of the game came in the 11th minute where a strong 50/50 between Portland striker and Mumford caused play to stop temporarily. The striker needing treatment lasted a few minutes, but somehow he managed to stay on the pitch.

On the flip side, it was us that came off worse with that challenge after 15 minutes where Mumford knew he wasn’t right after the challenge himself and opted to come off the pitch, replaced by Hughes who slotted in at RB while Dempsey moved over to LB.

on the 18th minute Cowes had their first clear chance of the game where a corner was pinned onto the keeper who punches it up into the air with Chase commanding the space allowed him to shield the defender away from Tout-Walters who controlled and quickly shot, causing the keeper to parry the ball to his left, and with Marsek approaching hard ready to tap it in, it wasn’t to be as a Portland defender got their first and cleared the ball.

It was a game that brought about many long throws from both sides as Portland clearly felt they would be able to get clear chances from it, but they didn’t expect Cowes to defend them so well. Our own long-throw main-man McFarlane was happy to return the favour, but so were the Portland defence who also were able to handle them well.

Portland couldn’t create chances in open play today, it wasn’t clicking very much for them, their first half was full of corners and long throws which didn’t come to any positive result for them.

the 2 main chances for Cowes both came from Carter-Knight, the first one in the 25th minute he found himself with the ball, takes a touch across to the left of the front of the 18 yard box and can’t quite connect with the ball cleanly, allowing the keeper to have time to save and keep hold of the ball. The 2nd chance came from another direct run from Tout-Walters on the right beating the Portland LB, taking the ball into the box and cutting back to Brown, who now facing away from the goal lays the ball to Carter-Knight whose shot is well blocked from the Portland defence and cleared.

The half ended at 0-0 and it certainly felt like The Yachtsmen had most of the positive chances and possession, some promising signs for the second half for sure!

Second half, and some neat passing by Browne, Wright and Hughes on the 49th minute allowed Hughes to find himself running at the Portland LB where he beats the man towards the goal line, cuts it back across the goal for an incoming McFarlane whose right foot shot just passes the right post by a foot.

The 50-60 minute period became all about Portland as they found themselves with momentum attacking our box which called Hatt into action twice, the first opportunity, a free kick taken direct from 5-6 yards outside the left corner of the box was parried well by Hatt out for a corner, leading to the second chance where Portland midfielder wins the header on the 6-yard box and Hatt produces a fantastic reaction save to keep the ball out and parry it away too.

The deadlock was finally broken in the 62nd minute where Tout-Walters is given the ball wide on the right and he does brilliantly to take the ball forwards, cut back causing the defender to stop dead and with a bullet of a left-foot cross pings the ball into the middle where a well-timed run from Browne meets the ball and helps it along into the left corner leaving the keeper standing, a classic winger-to-striker goal for the fans to witness!

The 1-0 scoreline changed the tempo of Portland’s game from this point as they made some substitutions and tried to be more direct in their play against our defense. Hatt is called into action once more doing his best to keep a clean sheet and Cowes can only muster a few set pieces as their main chances from minutes 62-80.

And our next clear chance did come on the 80th minute where some now-noticeable Cowes-style play setup Marsek to score his 4th goal of the season. Chase has the ball at the back and plays a ball through the lines to McFarlane, who passes it back to Hughes at RB, who knocks the ball over the Portland midfielders heads into Browne, who doing brilliantly to let the ball do the moving and his body keep the defender off, allows the ball to come across his body and while facing away from the goal knocks the ball on a volley over the Portland centre backs head to an incoming Marsek. A brilliant piece of skill by Marsek to cut back onto his right foot sending the centre back the other way gives him space to place the ball past the keeper into the top right corner. These types of goals have certainly been showing up more this season for The Yachtsmen!

Portland keep trying to throw their weight and numbers at us but Cowes now find themselves confidently defending everything, especially with an on-fire Hatt keeping Portland out.

The last proper chance of the half came in the 87th minute when Tout-Walters with the ball at his feet decides to knock the ball past 2 x Portland defenders and chase it, completely outpacing the men in front of him and causing a brash decision from the Portland player to bring him down in the box, penalty given!

McFarlane calmly puts the ball down, and with a cool run up and stutter sends the keeper to the left and passes the ball into the right of the net.

From this point on it was about Portland trying to keep the motivation to play (which was difficult for them) and Cowes just making sure they saw the game out. The full time whistle goes and Cowes FINALLY break the loss-record away to Portland, going home with 3 points from arguably their best performance of the season so far.

GOALS:

Portland United: N/A

Cowes Sports: Browne (62’), Marsek (80’), McFarlane (Pen 87’)

Next Up: Cowes face Ventnor FC in the Semi-Final of the IOW Gold Cup, a task not to be taken lightly as the thought of losing in the semi-final and not retain the title was enough to motivate the lads for sure!