If there was ever a game that best represented the day it’s played on, then a Toolstation Western League division 1 clash between Warminster Town and Oldland Abbotonians played on the 5th of November may not instantly spring to mind. However, the 155 in attendance were treated to lots of fireworks.
Warminster coming into this game had only lost twice in 11 games, whereas the visitors found themselves in 4th place, so this was always going to be a tasty clash. Warminster made the perfect start. After just 3 minutes, In-form Corey Gardner took the ball down and shot back across the keeper into the far corner to put the hosts 1-0 up.
In the 9th minute, the game’s first flashpoint arrived when an awful tackle from an Oldland player sparked a massive brawl, which resulted in a yellow card for the Abbots’ number 4 and Warminster skipper Lewis Graham.
The next chance fell, Gardner, and again pressured the keeper into a mistake but couldn’t quite find the finish. The sucker punch arrived on 24 minutes when a lovely free kick was met with a bullet header from David Patterson, who levelled the scores.
Shortly afterwards, the visitors briefly went down to 10 men with a player in the sin bin, and Warminster took advantage. On 40 minutes, a free kick from Spencer Dymond-Hall was headed into his own net by an Oldland defender. That ended a pulsating half of football. But the second half was just as good!
It took until an hour on the clock for the second half to get going, but on 63 minutes, another awful tackle from an Oldland defender resulted in a free kick, which was floated in and the other in-form player in the Warminster team, Max Wyatt, headed past the keeper to add a 3rd.
At 70 minutes, Lewis Graham blasted a shot goal-bound, but it flew well over the bar. There were 3 red cards during the game, and they all came during an ill-tempered final 15 minutes. On 77 minutes, what looked like a punch was aimed at Eben Mortimer Taylor, who reacted and was subsequently dismissed. The Oldland player also saw a red card for the punch. Just 5 minutes later, Oldland we’re reduced to 9 men, the captain picking up two yellows in quick succession for a foul and kicking the ball away.
Overall, an explosive clash ended with Warminster Town claiming 3 points, and to think they were bottom of the table 3 months ago and are now in 10th, with 4 games in hand over Hengrove Athletic, whom they face next weekend, anything is possible!
1. Sam Thomson 2. Corey Harbour Burgess 3. Spencer Dymond-Hall 4. Lewis Graham (C) 5. Jon Bazley 6. Chay Forrester 7. Leigh Rogers 8. Eben Mortimer Taylor 9. Corey Gardner (s) 10. Jakob Seviour (s) 11. Max Wyatt
Subs Used: Seb Hounsell, Logan Cassidy
Subs not used: Toby Worts, Henry Mcferran, James Vincent
Report by Liam Spurrier