Division One (West)
Witney United 1 New College Academy 5
Saturday, 01 February 2003
Witney United crashed to their second consecutive heavy defeat at Marriott?s Stadium after being dealt two harsh blows during the game. They could have no omplaints about the result though as New College produced a stunning performance orchestrated by former Swindon Town and Aberdeen star Tom Jones.
The first major blow came after just seven minutes when a through ball by Chris Jones caught the defence flat-footed and as Adam Giles got to the ball he accidentally caught United?s keeper Danny Clifford. As the ball drifted wide it was obvious Clifford was hurt and he was taken off on a stretcher leaving the home side with midfielder Kelvin Dowling taking over in goal. However this didn't rattle United and some lovely interplay between the lively Ricky Dash and Leeyon Phelan saw the latter poke the ball goalwards only for Chris Jones to scramble to safety. It was the visitors who struck first blood though when a cross field ball by Chris Hawkins was not properly cleared by Gaston Guei, on his return from suspension, and Tom Jones left Mark O'Dell and Dowling on the floor before calmly stroking into an empty net. Controversy was to reign five minutes later when David Lawrence was sent scampering through on goal and although keeper Ian Gill appeared to handle outside the box the referee waved play on to the fury of the home fans. However they were rewarded shortly afterwards when a through ball by Scott Dash found Ricky Dash who skilfully weaved his way to the line before cutting the ball back to Phelan who crashed the ball home and continued his recent fine scoring run. Witney were now well on top and both Phelan and Paul Lennon were denied by Gill and confidence seemed to be coming back to United's play
Half Time: 1-1
Within five minutes of the interval the second major blow of the day occurred. Tom Jones drifted in a corner that was met by the head of Bellinger and Ricky Dash stood on the goal line instinctively stuck out a hand and was promptly sent-off. Bellinger made no mistake from the spot as he sent Dowling the wrong way. The stuffing was knocked out of Witney and regrettably some heads went down and New College punished this with two more goals in the space of five minutes. First a fine run by Bellinger saw him cut the ball back to Adam Collier who fired home and then a great through ball by Tom Jones found Adam Giles who sprang the offside trap and beat Dowling. United tried to fight back but were now clearly second best and had only a couple of efforts from David Lawrence of any note. The day was rounded off with the goal of the afternoon. A brilliantly worked set-piece involving Tom Jones and Giles saw the ball passed to Collier for his second of the game to give New College a resounding victory.
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