Abandoned match Paulton Rovers versus Salisbury.

Evo-stik Southern League South and West Division.

Tuesday, 25th October

I’ve now re-worded the weather description, "pea souper" and will in future refer to it as a "Paulton souper". There follows a brief account of the evening’s adventure/trip to Somerset, and as a first for me, the account is of one third of a match when at most, only one half of the pitch could be seen at times from my seat in the stand, and therefore, if some detail is lacking, I’m sure my reader will understand!

On the way up to Paulton, we became increasingly perturbed about the changing weather and the further "up north" we got, the worse conditions became.

Annoyingly, the fog seemed to hover only over the pitch, with houses adjacent to the ground being unaffected, and a resident gardener put me right in that the reason for this was the grass surface!

Referee, Stephen Oakey, had said quite rightly that as long as he could see the other side of the pitch, then the game would start. Thus, the whistle, which sounded eerily shrill in the conditions, started proceedings. The Whites’ line-up showed just one change from that which put five goals past Barnstaple three days before, with Eddie Perrett replacing Mahlondo Martin, and in the 29 minutes of play, the Whites showed good intent against their lowly hosts.

Perhaps sensing the difficulty of anyone seeing anything from any distance, Lewis Benson hit a great shot from 25 yards after only two minutes, but the already alert home keeper, Andrew Hannah, made a good save. Three minutes later, the keeper again saved his side with a brilliant stop when the lively Tommy Wright managed to get a shot in with three defenders around him, and on nine minutes, Benson, who was clearly interested in adding to his late goal on Saturday, put a cross shot just past the far post.

With only fifteen minutes gone and without, as far as I’m aware, any threat on the Salisbury goal at the lower end of the slope, it was nearly Wright the provider as he got down the right and crossed the ball across the box just out of Kane O’Keefe’s reach.

It was a good job that Salisbury were on the front foot as that meant that most of the action occurred within range of reasonable vision, but Wright, who was giving Josh Ford a torrid evening, was hauled back just inside the Paulton half at the expense of a yellow card for the home defender. Another fifteen yards or so and the yellow card could have been a different colour as in that distance it is likely that other defenders would not have had time, or maybe even the pace, to catch up with the young Salisbury marksman who would have been in on goal.

It seems that these days it’s impossible to write any account of a match without mentioning Wright, but on eighteen minutes, he committed what is for him a very unusual ’crime’, receiving a great ball from an unidentifiable shadow on the left, but somehow managing to put his finish wide from no more than ten yards. Obviously, a very thick and very localised patch of fog caused this!

The last action in a game of 29 minutes occurred with seven minutes to go, with George Colson crossing into the box and Justin Bennett only managing a weak finish in a one-on-one. Maybe another thick fog patch was to blame!

Things went very quiet, literally, and the next we knew was that the referee had come across to the main stand to announce there would be a fifteen minute delay to see if the conditions improved. Suffice to say, they didn’t, and therefore the match was abandoned with another whistle-blow from somewhere in the murk. Annoyingly though, some twenty minutes afterwards, the weather conditions returned to a level similar to those which had allowed the match to start!

This was another game where the Whites started like a train and I could hear in my mind a certain football manager uttering the phrase "chance after chance after chance". The only reason he might not have done so is perhaps because unless he’d eaten an excess of carrots, he would probably not have been able to see any more than anyone else.

The next attempt at completing the fixture is arranged for Tuesday, 20th December (kick-off 7.30 pm), and there will be free admission in order to compensate travelling supporters, instead of issuing admission vouchers.

Paulton Rovers and their officials are some of the most pleasant people I have encountered, and apart from supporting your team, it would be good if fans could travel on the new date and spend some money in the tea hut! Might make a pleasant way to start your Christmas.

Teams

Paulton Rovers: Hannah, Keightley, O’Sullivan (Wheatley 11), Grimshaw, Ford, Shaw, Hailston, Gibbons, Best, Gould, Byrne.

Subs not used: Parkes, Legge.

Salisbury FC: Bass, Colson, Parselle, Whelan, Wheeler, Perrett, Benson, O’Keefe, Wright, Bennett, Mundy.

Subs not used: Ball, Martin, Roberts, Brockway, Rusher.

Attendance: I could see approximately 100 people! Referee: S Oakey.

By Alec Hayter