MATCH REPORT - vs Wincanton Town

Wincanton Town 3 - 1 Cowes Sports

Date: Saturday 16th November

Location: Wincanton Sports Ground

After a solid start for both teams showing how much they wanted to play their way, it was Wincanton who opened the scoring in the 13th minute with a corner from the right. The ball was met by a header, which was expertly saved by Cowes goalkeeper Hatt, however, the ball dropped at the feet of Wincanton's striker, who was quick to tap it in for the 1-0 lead.

Cowes were not deterred by the early setback and began to press forward. The visitors had their first clear chance in the 17th minute when GCK and Mumford combined to set up McFarlane. McFarlane's cross found Marsek, whose shot curled just over the bar. Cowes continued to build possession, and in the 24th minute, Hughes played a ball over the top for Marsek, who was tackled just before he could get a shot off. Moments later, Hughes himself had a left-footed shot from the edge of the box, but it sailed just over.

The visitors were beginning to find their rhythm, but despite some promising moments, they were unable to break down the Wincanton defense. Just before the break, Carter-Knight was shown a yellow card for an apparent dive on the edge of the box, which led to some frustration with the referee's decisions. The first half ended with Cowes trailing 1-0, but the signs were there that they could make a comeback.

The Yachtsmen came out confident in the second half as the flow of the game was definitely in their favour. Possession was with Cowes and they had chances in the Wincanton 3rd but couldn’t execute them as much as they hoped. We came as close as you can get after 62 mins when Mumford cut inside from left back towards the 18 yard box and played a well-paced pass into the path of McFarlane whose first time shot under the oncoming keeper managed to hit the right hand post and keep away from any oncoming Cowes players.

Cowes continued to trust their way of playing as it was consistently getting the players into the area where damage could be done, but then on a counter attack in the 74th minute Wincanton played a through ball between out defence where the striker beat the offside and as he approached the left side of the 18 yard box, slotted it past Hatt to make the score 2-0.

To make matters worse, 2 mins later, another tackle from the Wincanton midfield allowed them to counter where they played into the oncoming right back who carried on the pass down the line to the winger, the cross first time right into the 6 yard box needed Chase to slide and clear it from the strikers feet, but the ball ended up with another oncoming Wincanton player who couldn’t miss from 5 yards out, 3-0 Wincanton.

After a frustrating 81 minutes of football where Cowes felt they had created the most chances, we finally managed to get the goal we were looking for. A free kick deep on the left side by Carter-Knight was placed perfectly in to the backpost area where Chase powered through and headed it past the keeper to make the score 3-1.

Wincanton then were happy to see the game out and do whatever they could to clear the ball, happy with their performance, where Cowes were left feeling frustrated at the final whistle that they couldn’t find their killer instincts that they’ve shown in the previous couple of months.

Goals:

• WIncanton - Voizey (13’), McAlistair (74’), Crips (76’)

• Cowes - Chase (81’)

Next Up: Cowes host West Wight FC in the IOW Senior Gold Cup Quarter Final, a chance to get closer to sealing their 3rd Gold Cup win in a row.