Division One (West)
Witney United 1 Ardley United 4
Saturday, 19 October 2002
Witney crashed to defeat at Marriott?s Stadium against high-flying Ardley after a very poor first half performance. United who fielded new signing Paul Lennon and had other new signing Brady Lilley on the bench were no match for the visitors in the first forty-five minutes.
After just four minutes Paul Bough managed to spring the offside trap and only a great save by Danny Clifford kept honours even. Ardley were looking very dangerous with their long balls over the top of the full backs and Andy Brien came closest when his strike was well pushed away by Clifford. Witney had their first real effort in the 20th minute when a Sean Cantwell free kick was spilled by Martin Woodward, but the stopper grabbed the ball at the 2nd attempt. However within three minutes Ardley were in front when a great curling shot by Paul Wright was tipped over by Clifford and from the resulting corner swung in by Paul Spittle, Adie Meredith rose unchallenged to power home a great header. The visitors found themselves further ahead just nine minutes later from another set-piece. Spittle again curled in the ball from a free kick and as Clifford came to collect in nipped Tony Bott to beat him to the ball and head home. Witney fought back and a reverse pass by Marc Page sent David Lawrence scampering away but his shot went straight into the hands of Woodward. Disaster struck though when a high ball into the Witney box was allowed to bounce and Bott had all the time in the world to score with an overhead kick.
Half Time: 0-3
The second-half was a much more even affair and although Bough went close early on it was Witney who were having the better chances. Some good work by David Lawrence on the left wing saw him feed a slick pass to Paul Lennon who controlled the ball but fired over the bar. Then a slack back-pass by Colin Pickup went straight to Kelvin Dowling but with only Woodward to beat he shot straight at the keeper and the chance was lost. Pickup made up for his mistake though when after neat work by Bott out wide he volleyed the cross towards goal only for it to rebound off the crossbar on to Clifford and in to the net. It was cruel on the home side who didn?t deserve to concede but to their credit they never gave up and a good through ball by Dowling found Sean Cantwell but he shot straight into the arms of Woodward. The final minute though was to have plenty of action. Steve Lawrence was shown a second yellow card for dissent and was sent-off and before he had made it to the showers a free kick by Cantwell found Ben Border at the back post who volleyed home for a consolation for the home side.
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