AFC Stoneham vs Wincanton Town match report:
On a mild afternoon at Stoneham Lane, AFC Stoneham continued their league campaign with a 4-0 win against Wincanton Town.
Three goals from Tyrell Sampson and one from Duarte Martins secured the win. The purps made a fast start as Tyrell Sampson saw an effort saved before the resulting corner was punched away well under pressure by the opposition goalkeeper.
The corners paid dividends early on as Will Seeley did well once again under pressure to punch clear, but the resulting ball was bought down well by Oli Jenkins before being smashed home by Tyrell Sampson.
The purps continually pushed against the away side with Duarte Martins seeing a shot flash just across the face of goal after being slipped through following an immaculate touch from Tyrell Sampson. Lewis Nagle was next to sting the palms of Will Seeley, as he did from the left angle of the box after a chipped through ball from Oli Jenkins, who saw a header well saved by Seeley in the next phase of play.
The game took a pivotal turn on 31 minutes however as Ash Wells was sent off for what was deemed to be a studs up challenge on Darren McAlistair.. The away side had a flurry of corners at the start of the second half, forcing Ryan Cluett into a clearance off the line. But Stoneham took the initiative and doubled their lead after Tyrell Sampson finished in a clinical manner following a stunning solo run.
The purps added a third soon after as Duarte Martins latched onto a long ball to lift it. Owen Fee then hit the bar with an unbelievable strike before Jim saw his shot blocked on the follow up.
Ross Casey had to be on top form to keep the clean sheet in tac however as Conor Williams picked up on a loose Ryan Cluett pass and forced Ross Casey into a top quality save.
The long ball paid dividends once more for the Purps as Tyrell Sampson gained his hat trick with a similar finish to Martins’.
Interview by Cam Donaldson with James Phillips.
James, you must be pleased with the result considering the circumstances, what did
you make of that one?
No, no complaints at all, going down to ten men after half an hour was always going to make it tricky. It was a tricky challenge for us to be honest. I thought that we should have scored, or scored a couple more before we went down to ten men, which would have obviously made it more comfortable. But yeah, with the game only being 1-0, it was always going to be a challenge and a real test of our character and commitment to it. But I thought the lads were outstanding after that.
We obviously have to allude to the two ‘stains’ on the game if you like, what did you make of the sending off and how is Dan Millar after coming off at half time?
Yes, honestly I know it may sound like I am backing out of it, but I couldn’t see from where I was. Some of the lads on the pitch were saying it wasn’t a very good challenge so ill take their word for it. When your own teammates are saying that it probably says it all really, so no complaints on that one. We also took Millsy off at half time which again isn’t ideal. Losing two of your back four, or back five, however you want to look at it, is never good, but hopefully it is just an impact one and hopefully he is ok but we will have to see how that one goes. Clarkey came on at half time however and was faultless through that second fourty five minutes, so fair play to him. He has not had a lot of minutes recently, so it is tough for him to come into a game like that and do what he did, so fair play to him.
How challenging is it as a manager to have to change that early on after setting up a new system for the game with five at the back?
Yeah, it was disappointing. I thought we were playing really well, I liked how welooked in possession and out of possession. Like you say, it is not something we do all of the time, but we have been working on it for quite a while. We do it a lot in later stages of games just to see things out, bit more of a five when it happens like that, but obviously today it was back three. But it was disappointing to have to it change it
so early, but we adapted quite well and obviously got bodies behind the ball. We always knew we would still create chances and it was just about taking them, and thankfully we did that second half.
Wincanton have now scored 40 which is the joint most in the bottom half this season, and conceded 69 which is the most in the league this season, so how important is it to make sure games like these aren’t too frantic or if they are, make sure you are scoring the goals and dictating?
Yeah, I said before the game, some of the reason as to why we chose the system we did today, was to make sure we could dominate the ball. Obviously here on our pitch we expect to do that anyway, but I thought that would give us a lot more control, pose them a few more questions. Back when we played them earlier on in the season, we were 2-1 down at half time, flipped to a back three in that and it caused them all sorts of problems. So we thought that would be the way forward. But it is important to manage teams like this. Like you say they score a lot but they concede quite a few so we always thought that we would score, which we did. But it was about making sure we were secure at the other end, which I said to the boys, we haven’t been great at recently, but we got a clean sheet and put in a good defensive display.
You obviously had the news about Roman Glass St George yesterday what do you make of that and the fact you will now face Andover, a team you know but also a tough test?
Yeah, unexpected. We got wind of it quite early on. I know Jamie, the Andover manager quite well so we kind of had an inckling it might happen. Not ideal if I am honest. If you get to the last 16 of the Vase, you don’t want to be playing someone from your own league really, just from the experience point of view more than anything. The League will obviously be happy because it guarantees a team from this division in the next round, which just shows how strong the league is at the moment really. But we look forward to the game, they are a really good side Andover. Loads of experience in there, but loads of youth and character as well so it will be a tough challenge, but we have done our homework on them, played them before and watched them again today, but we have Ringwood first and then we will prepare for the Vase.
What are your thoughts ahead of Ringwood?
It will be a tough test, I think they are unbeaten at home so far. I don’t know how they got on tody, but I think they are unbeaten in the league, so we wont be taking them lightly at all. I know Fran has a good side down there, they are pushing playoffs up the top end. But we will go there confident and wanting to go into a semi final so we will do everything we can to do that.
![Nisa_Logo_4col_AW01[1] (2).jpg](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc9f9978eda8c300ddb0e26/1612482848367-T0VL5I8BVTBLSGAN9GHP/Nisa_Logo_4col_AW01%5B1%5D+%282%29.jpg){kind=logo}
