AMESBURY TOWN 0-5 BAFFINS MILTON ROVERS: THE MATCH REPORT...

Baffins Crush Town Hopes On Opening Day

Amesbury Town 0-5 Baffins Milton Rovers

I arrived early to check out where the ground was and saw finishing touches being made to the new home dressing room, as a sign was attached to the door. A mayoral substitute duly arrived later, as did a photographer and all concerned smiled in the celebratory photograph, possibly the final time home skipper and manager Jack Vallis smiled at all during the afternoon. In truth his team was beaten by a better outfit on the day, which passed the ball out of defence with some confidence and controlled the midfield areas through the easy passing of skipper Shane Cornish and the endeavour of Tommy Tierney, who would eventually score a brace of goals. Dale Mason supported the belligerent Tyler Moret and the enigmatic Jason Parish in attack with some neat play and both Moret and Parish would net goals.

THE REF ASKS A LINESMAN WHICH BARBER HE USES...

NEW SEASON & SO MORET REMINDS HIMSELF OF WHAT HE'S MEANT TO KICK...

Vallis would likely point to the fact that two late penalties added to his group’s woes and the third goal took a long time coming but his forwards weren’t offered much in the way of service, although both, both named Matthews (Jordan and Jordon), would make attempts. A couple of slight errors in the home defence contributed to the opening pair of goals for Baffins before the interval but there was an inevitability about the outcome of this game which was feisty at times, especially when Moret wasn’t pleased, or when home replacement Tyler Brockway and Baffin Tierney clashed. This unpleasant confrontation ended with the offended Tierney receiving a caution, after he had converted a penalty. 

VALLIS: TOUGH AFTERNOON...

The overlapping wingbacks of Baffins were the real engineers of Amesbury’s downfall however, for Freeman Williams on the left and Robbie Taw on the right, fed by Cornish’s long switching passes and Tierney’s shorter but just as effective ones, provided a number of offensive sorties for their team. The hosts were less intrusive to be honest and only a free-kick each from the Matthews lads and a low drive across the face of goal by Luke Greenway, following a battle for the ball, really worried visiting ‘keeper Cameron Scott at all. Jordon’s free-kick rose too high, as did another of his shots from 19 yards and Jordan’s free-kick drive struck the defensive wall and cannoned over the crossbar for an unproductive corner. Home left-back George Plank was cautioned for kicking the ball away in anger too, something a few folks were wondering about the sin-bin for…

AMESBURY'S MANDSON LOOKS MISERABLE ABOUT BAFFINS' OPENING GOAL...

Rovers though threatened more and after home gloveman Jordan Tewkesbury missed a right-flank delivery, causing the ball to bounce off Cornish for a goal-kick, Parish shot wide from 19 yards and nodded a Taw centre too high from a standing position. He though opened the scoring when Corey Burns’ cross from deep right was not dealt with by Vallis and the ball fell at the unmarked Parish’s feet, whereby he lifted his shot from 7 yards high past Tewkesbury. Parish’s coach wasn’t at all impressed with the Cristiano Ronaldo goal celebration however and indeed, Parish was constantly, er, ‘encouraged’ throughout the game from in front of the Rovers’ dugout… The second goal was assisted by Taw, after Moret had fed the ball to him and then made a telling run into the penalty-box at inside-right. Taw’s cross was glanced on by Moret, beyond Tewkesbury and into the far corner of the net, again unchallenged. Mason nearly added a third goal when Moret kindly and unselfishly set him up at the right post but Tewkesbury made a fine blocking save at the expense of a corner.

0-1 BUT MORET SEEMS TO HAVE A JERSEY MALFUNCTION...

GOALSCORER PARISH: CONSTANTLY 'ENCOURAGED' FROM THE SIDELINES...

0-2 AND SCORER MORET STILL HAS A SHIRT ISSUE...

There was little pressing by Town as Callum Glen, Burns and Brandon Miller, the centre backs for Baffins, nonchalantly knocked the ball around at times, aided by interventions from Cornish and Tierney, so that by the break, it was clear that the hosts would need something special to snatch anything from the contest. Certainly Dalitso Mandson for Amesbury looked neat at times, certainly Jordan Matthews looked livelier after the interval and certainly Cornish wasn’t happy with the Baffins’ second period start but although Greenway sliced a right-sided effort tree-high, Jordan Matthews shot from the left-wing but too high and Jordon Matthews’ header was hacked from the Rovers’ goal-line by the well positioned Burns. There was only a late free-kick by Jordan Matthews to come which virtually knocked Baffins’ replacement George Burgess off his feet.

PLANK IS CAUTIONED...

WE LIKES THE EXPRESSIONS...

Subsequently the visitors got back on track and following a disallowed goal when Moret was adjudged to have baulked Tewkesbury and caused him to drop Taw’s delivery into his own net, Cornish shot wide after Williams had miscued and then substitute Callum Dart attempted to assist Williams when a shot was clearly on for himself. However, it was Parish who basically took centre-stage in the Rovers attack from thence. He made a strong run on the left to beat home defender Joel Denyer and centred low for Tierney to score goal three from 16 yards with a shot into the bottom left corner of the net, then Parish made the pass from which Burgess was upended by resilient home defender Craig Wheeler, resulting in a penalty which Tierney took and rapped high to the ‘keeper’s right for 0-4.

0-3 & A GOAL FOR TIERNEY...

THE SKIPPER ASKS HIS COACH: "WILL YOU PAY THE FINE?"

DART FAKES TEARS ABOUT HIS SKIPPER'S BOOKING...

BROCKWAY & TIERNEY GET A WARNING, AS WEEKS THINKS THAT TIME IS BEING WASTED...

WHEELER HAS CONCEDED A SPOT-KICK AND IS ABOUT TO BE BOOKED...

It was Parish himself who was seemingly upended from behind by a hapless and unhappy Vallis to win another spot-kick for Rovers but despite some bloke from Baffins getting angry when he thought Tierney should be handed the chance to claim a hat-trick, Parish held onto the ball, took the kick and lashed it high to Tewkesbury’s left for the final goal. The hard working home defender Wheeler had been cautioned for conceding penalty one but Vallis escaped that punishment strangely, when penalty two was whistled. Burgess drove a 25 yarder at Tewkesbury before the end but although the goalie mishandled it, he did recover the ball. 

TIERNEY SEES YELLOW FOR HIS EXUBERANT GOAL CELEBRATION AT BROCKWAY...

PARISH HAS ADDED GOAL 5...

Cornish was finally booked for the guests too, although he and Moret had flown close to the fluttering of a yellow card for much of the game in truth… Tierney had been incensed about an altercation he had had with Brockway however and thus when the Baffin netted his penalty, he taunted the unconcerned Town man and the referee booked the visiting midfielder.

3 POINTS FOR BAFFINS...

A comprehensive victory for Baffins, yes, but lots to work on for Amesbury too, who will no doubt be strengthened by the return of missing players. Jamie Ritchie did become more of a factor after half-time in midfield but it was a tough day for the Stonehengers… Baffins will be a force perhaps, for their possession game and their useful forwards will cause many teams problems… 

Thanks to Amesbury for the kind welcome on the day…

TEAMS:

AMESBURY TOWN:

JORDAN TEWKESBURY, JOEL DENYER, EORGE PLANK, CRAIG WHEELER, JACK VALLIS (CAPT), JAMIE RITCHIE, JORDAN MATTHEWS, DANIEL KODI, DALITSO MANDSON, LUKE GREENWAY, JORDON MATTHEWS.

SUBS:

LEE WEEKS, TYLER BROCKWAY, CHARLIE BLAKE, CONNER PALMER, MCAULIE STUBBS.

BAFFINS MILTON ROVERS:

CAMERON SCOTT, ROBBIE TAW, FREEMAN WILLIAMS, CALLUM GLEN, COREY BURNS, BRANDON MILLER, TOMMY TIERNEY, SHANE CORNISH, JASON PARISH, DALE MASON, TYLER MORET.

SUBS:

CALLUM DART, ALEX ANDREWS, OWEN HALY, JUNIOR KAMARA, GEORGE BURGESS.