Winchester City Football Club
"The Citizens"

Winchester City are through to the next round of the Hampshire Senior Cup following a comprehensive 8-3 victory away at Sydenhams Wessex League Division One side, Hythe and Dibden.

The lower league opponents, featuring former Southampton and AFC Bournemouth midfielder, Jo Tessem, started brightly and went 2-0 up midway through the first-half. This kicked City into life and they pulled a goal back thanks to Simba Mlambo. City then very soon afterwards drew level thanks to a Jamie Barron penalty. The comeback was complete at the end of the first-half when Olly Balmer volleyed home from close range.

City started the second-half in a similar fashion and club stalwart, Danny King, squeezed his effort past the keeper.

Substitute, Max Smith, added a fifth for City with a well-placed low effort.

Simba Mlambo then scored his second and City's sixth, before another substitute, Oli Bailey, netted the visitors' seventh goal of the night. The scoring wasn't complete though and young midfielder, IK Hill, headed home from close range to make it 8-2.

Hythe and Dibden did score a late consolation goal, but it finished 8-3 to City at full-time on the waterside.

Winchester suffered their first league defeat of the season when they were beaten 2-0 at Evesham.  Evesham are a long established Southern League club and have finished in the top seven of this division in each of the last five seasons, reaching the playoffs in three of these, and attract good crowds for their home matches..  Their new manager this season is Carl Abbott who has taken over from Paul Collicutt.

With Rob Carr and Oli Bailey not available Winchester introduced new forward Domenico Panesar- Dower who they have just signed from Dorchester and he and Liam Gilbert coming in for Carr and Bailey were the two changes to the starting line-up from Saturday

Winchester made a bright start and Lochlan Robertson in the home goal had to make successive saves from Jamie Barron and Simba Mlambo and a further save from Panesar-Dower.  At the other end Jack Cresswell and Matt Dodd combined, but the ball went harmlessly out for a goal kick,

Winchester continued to press and after Robertson made a further save from Mlambo the ball hit the post.  Jamie Barron had two further shots saved and a shot from fully 30 yards out from Ollie Griggs hit the cross bar..  Although at the end of the half Ryan Pryce made a good save from Jordon Sangha Winchester certainly had the best of the goalless first half.

Evesham however started the second half brightly with Aaron Roberts shooting just wide and Sangha having a further effort saved from Pryce.  The home team took the lead six minutes into the half with Lee Chilton heading home a cross from Roberts,  Two minutes after the goal Robertson made a further save from a low shot from Ollie Balmer.  Evesham made it 2-0 just before the hour mark when Adam Page who had just come on as substitute combined with Sangha to set up Dodd to score at close range.

Following the goal Evesham looked comfortable with their lead and Page since coming on as substitute looking particularly lively and fellow substitute Paul Sullivan comes close to getting on the end of one of his crosses.

Winchester bought on I K Hill. Kieran Douglas and Joe Hayward as second half substitutes and Mlambo faced a further save from Robertson.  However as the minutes ticked away Winchester were unable to break down a solid Evesham defence and as a result the home team moved above them in the table,

There will be no repeat of last season's great F A Cup run for Winchester as they were beaten 3-0 at home by Taunton Town who play in the league above, with Dan Sullivan scoring a hat-trick for the visitors.  Nevertheless Winchester gave a good account of themselves in an even first half and were probably a bit unlucky to be behind at the interval.  However after Taunton scored two goals in quick succession in the second half the result was never in doubt and Taunton still looked the more likely team to score even when they were 3-0 ahead.

Taunton had a good record against Winchester and the 14 league games between the clubs had produced 9 Taunton wins, 4 draws and 1 Winchester win.  They made a slow start to this season, but have been in good form in recent weeks and have a good fan base who support their team enthusiastically.

Winchester announced an unchanged starting line-up from Tuesday's F A Cup win at AFC Stoneham with Rob Carr still available for this game despite his red card on Tuesday.  Liam Gilbert was available again, but was on the substitutes bench, while Keith Emmerson was playing against the team he was player coach of last season.

Early on Taunton's Andrew Neal forced Ryan to save at the expense of a corner, while at the other end Rob Flooks came close following a corner.  Dan Williamson also forced a save from experienced goalkeeper Lloyd Irish.

Both Ollie Balmer and Andrew Neal forced saves from the respective goalkeepers, while in addition captain Matt Wright who had scored a hat-trick on his last visit to Winchester had a header saved by Pryce following a free kick.

Lloyd Irish then made the best save of the first half when he saved from Rob Carr.  Two minutes before the interval Taunton took the lead when Matt Wright got in behind the defence and crossed for Dan Sullivan to score.

Although Oli Bailey had a shot saved Taunton boosted by the goal had the better of the early period of the second half with Ollie Chamberlain and Jamie Price coming close and they were also kept out by blocks and interceptions as the visitors began to play with greater fluency.

On the hour Winchester surrendered possession in a crucial area of the pitch which led to Zach Smith setting up Sullivan to score his second.  Three minutes later it was 3-0 when Sullivan broke through the defence to complete his hat-trick.

Winchester bought on Kieran Douglas, Liam Gilbert and I K Hill as substitutes and although the last named forced a save from Irish, Pryce made good saves from Andrew Neal and Shane White and Taunton had a couple of other near misses as they completed the victory in a match between the county towns of Hampshire and Somerset.  The visiting fans certainly appreciated their cider and also expressed pleasure that their local hero Jack Leach helped England avoid the follow on in the test match.

Winchester are away to Evesham on Saturday and travel to Hythe and Dibden in the Hampshire Senior Cup on the following Tuesday,

Assistant physiotherapist Nina Parkin was married on the day of the Taunton game and everyone wishes her and her new husband a happy life as a married couple.

Winchester progressed to the 1st qualifying round of the F A Cup with a 3-1 win against AFC Stoneham and will play Taunton Town at home in the next round. They had to pay 88 minutes with 10 men after Rob Carr was shown a straight red card.

Having last been to this ground when Pirelli General played there it was noticeable that with all the building work going on in the area access was very different and I arrived later than I had originally planned.

Winchester made one change to the starting line-up from Saturday with Simba Mlambo now returned from holiday coming in For Liam Gilbert who often finds midweek games difficult to manage.

However after 2 minutes Winchester were down to 10 men when Rob Carr caught Aaron Dunne who lost several teeth and suffered concussion, which required him to go to hospital;.  There seemed to be no intent on the part of Rob Carr and I was surprised to see the red card shown.  I will not say anything more about this incident, except to say that concern for the injured player was shown by both clubs and it is good that Dunne has been able to respond to the good wishes he has received.

Winchester took the lead in the 14th minute when Oli Bailey took advantage of hesitancy in the home defence and rounded the goalkeeper before slotting home.  After the both teams had their attacking moments with for Winchester Ollie Griggs and Oli Bailey having shots blocked and at the other end Matt Bainbridge forced a good save from Ryan Pryce and Callum Laycock also coming close.  Towards the end of the first half AFC Stoneham were enjoying a good spell of pressure and Winchester were relieved to score a second goal towards the end of the game's first period.

At the start of the second half Callum Laycock again came close for the home side, while Olli Bailey whose pace up front was always a threat to AFC Stoneham was denied by a good block by Ben Clarke.  Keith Emmerson keen to earn a tie against the club he served as player coach last season also got in some important clearances to keep the home team out.

AFC Stoneham pulled a goal back midway through the second half when Matt Palmer headed home a corner, although Ryan Pryce had earlier saved efforts that were easier to keep out than this one.  This goal though fuelled thoughts of yet another AFC Stoneham fight back against Winchester.

Simba Mlambo and Kieran Douglas forced saves from the home goalkeeper, but AFC Stoneham also came close on a couple of occasions, Winchester though made the game safe when Jamie Barron set up Ollie Griggs to score in the game's closing minutes.

In the second half Kieran Douglas, Joe Hayward and I K Hill came on as second half substitutes for Winchester.  The match attracted a good crowd considering Eastleigh were at home on the same evening.

A very good and comprehensive display from the lads, despite once again missing a hatful of chances we slipped 2-0 down from nowhere... credit we pulled it back to 3-2 up at half time, Simba, Barron and Balmer with the goals.

2nd half king, IK, Max Smith returning after illness, Simba again and Oli Bailey made it 8-2 only for them to get a consolation to finish 8-3, that is despite their keeper making countless saves!

Credit to the lads, they are not mugs and had some great wins this season and top of their league but we were excellent abs they couldn't really cope on the night.

We now prepare for next Tuesday at Mangotsfield with a free weekend this weekend where we will be training well.

Good to be back under winning ways, up the citizens.

Davo

Old adage of you have to take the chances that come your way, we absolutely dominated the first half and their assistant manager said we should have been out of sight at the break... hit a post, a bar and had countless other chances not taken.

2nd half they score, we then have another giltedged chance to equalise not taken and they go up the other end and finish the game 2-0!

Very frustrating but we played skem very good stuff and will take the positives out of the game.

Hants cup Tuesday now and we will look forward to that one.

Up the citizens

Fairly good effort from the boys today! Superb display for the first 44 minutes and then a sickener right on half time to go behind lifted them and knocked us! That was the turning point! 2 further goals and it looks a comfortable day for them!

n reality I think we gave it a right good go but that goal gave them the impetus and a couple more goals after we changed to try and get back in it and we lose 3-0 to@a very good Taunton town side - I wish them the very best in the next round!

or us we have chance to regroup and recharge after a very busy time, good weeks training and then we get ready for a very tough game away to Evesham who are signing more and more talented players every week and so we will need to be ready for that.

Major character and a top result against a side who battle hard, they got every plaudit under the sun in the first game which I thought was over the top, we were without so many forward players and they nicked an equaliser in the last minute! We were very poor on the day though.

Tonight we get a man sent off for a ridiculous sending off that was never a red, then go onto put in a great disciplined shift with 10 players and score from Bailey and Barron before the break. Then control the game in 2nd half only for them to score with a corner headed in (the only one we didn’t put our head on) and then close the game out with all of our subs making big impacts and Griggsy finishing the game off for 3-1 late on! 

Brilliant display that says everything that needs to be said by the group of lads we have at the club!

Very proud of them and they all deserve immense praise from anyone who wishes to comment on the forum if anyone. 

We now get ready for Taunton which is a major obstacle but we look forward to going in with any pressure applied to us i this round sat with them. Let’s see what we can do but will enjoy this win tonight for many reasons.

Up the citizens!