Cowes Can Have No Beef With Wimborne

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Saturday 29 August at Westwood Park
Result	Cowes Sports 0 Wimborne Town 5
Competition	FA Cup Preliminary Round
Hopping	All is explained in the previous blogpost, but this visit was randomly selected by horseracing results last Wednesday.  In turn that was inspired by my first trip to the races on Tuesday.  I am here because of this specific combination of events: Omotesando lived up to his status at 7/4 favourite in the eighth race of the day at Lingfield (the 5.25) AND then Landwade Lad came home at 11/2 in the 8.25 at Kempton Park having been drawn in position eight.  No other sequence of events could have brought me here.  The 8.25 favourite was unplaced – had it won, I’d have been at Abbey Hey v Warrington at the other end of the country.  It’s random, and beats making your own decisions.  Westwood Park goes in at number 577 on my lifetime list.  It is NOT the first time that I have taken to the water to get to an English game if you count the Woolwich ferry en route to Thamesmead Town.  It’s not my first time on the IoW either, but it is the first time in over 40 years.  Wonder if Southern Vectis buses still exist?  (Answer: Yes!)
Pre-match Preparation
Step 5 versus Step 4.  Cowes Sports were promoted from Step 6 last season into the Wessex Premier League.  They beat Melksham Town of the Western League Premier 3-1 in a replay to earn this tie.  The third goal was knocked in from the half-way line in the closing minutes.  They were well-beaten in their only away league game this season but are unbeaten at home including a comeback from 0-2 down in their last game.  Results suggest a resilient team whose best chance of winning this tie is to do so at home. Looking at Wimborne Town’s results raises more questions than answers.  They enter the FA Cup at this stage but only picked up their first league points of the season last Saturday after a couple of thumpings, a narrow defeat and a crazy 5-6 home defeat to Winchester City.  They play in the Southern League Division One South & West.
Pre-match Entertainment
The Sir Max Aitken Museum houses one of the craziest, eccentric and random collections of memorabilia that I have ever seen.  It deserves more visitors.  Wonderful Englishness at its best. A cradle made for one of Napoleon Bonaparte's kiddies! These are dirks.  The upper one was from Hitler's bunker.  Sir Max acquired it from his father Lord Beaverbrook (the press baron) who in turn had been given it by Stalin.  The lower one (reassuringly bigger) is one of the Duke of Edinburgh's.  Physics alert!  This is a sundial with an alarm feature.  Charge the miniature cannon, set the devlice in the right orientation and at the chosen hour the focussed light rays from the sun will light the fuse!
This Match in One Sentence
A comfortable win for the visitors who gave the hosts a lesson in finishing.
So what?
Wimborne will be at home to Witheridge of the Step 6 SW Peninsula League in the First Qualifying Round.
The Drama Unfolds
It started to rain steadily and the chances of an upset faded very quickly as Wimborne’s number 9, James Stokoe, for whom the word burly was invented, beat the keeper Ed Hatt to a cross for an easy header.  0-1 after 4 mins Hatt made a good block to prevent further damage before Wimborne missed another good chance.  A headed backpass fell too short but Hatt was fortunate to be able to shepherd Mark Gamble away from goal.   Wimborne were very, very comfortable.  Occasionally Cowes would show glimpses of slick passing and triangles against their stronger more physical opponents, but they could not really get the Wimborne keeper working hard. The second goal was rolled in by Franklyn Clarke when the offside line was breached, to the annoyance of the home faithful in the splendid wooden main stand who were not happy with the lino.  A real defensive calamity, but no more damage in the first 45.  0-2 at half-time The “if only” moment came five minutes into the second half.  If only Charlie Smeeton had poked the ball home instead of wide when it fell to him on the six-yard line.  Wimborne struck immediately and a through ball went to Gamble who made no mistake.  0-3 after 51 mins The impressive Stokoe scored his second of the game by dropping deep to receive a pass then placing a low shot into the bottom right corner.  0-4 after 59 mins Cowes gamely sought a consolation and Jason Harvell saved well from Jordan Browne before Wimborne scored again.  A sweeping move in numerical order by numbers 9 Stokoe (great pass), 10 Gamble (square across the box) and 11 led to a tap-in for the latter, Carl Preston,  0-5 after 67 mins Harvell denied Cowes a consolation again but diving to push away a shot by Keelan Sainsbury which would otherwise have gone into the top corner, and at the other end Hatt saved a sixth with an acrobatic save to push away a shot from Clarke.  Wimborne will be very happy with this as a job completed clinically.  If you have been following them this year you may well have seen more goals in total than anyone else.  Final score 0-5
Ground Pix
A very well-equipped clubhouse alongside the wooden stand.  Altogether a very pleasant experience even in the rain. Minute silence impeccably observed in memory of Matt Grimstone and Jacob Schilt of Worthing United who lost their lives in the Shoreham Air Show crash last weekend Above-average levels of intrepidness
Match Pix
Cowes Sports are in the blue-and-white.
Public Information Service A field guide to Recognition of Isle of Wight Ferries
No, No, No No, No and No Definitely No Yes (red one) and No (white one) Yes (but only if you are on foot)
Updated Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats
A win and a clean sheet for green over bottom-of-the-table pink. The story so far: 3pts for win, 1pt for draw, -1pt for goal against and +5pts for a clean sheet P W D L GA (-1 each) CS (5 each) Pts Pts per Game Red 6.0 3.0 0.0 3.0 6.0 2.0 13.0 2.17 Green 37.0 18.0 5.0 14.0 56.0 12.0 63.0 1.70 Purple 7.0 4.0 2.0 1.0 13.0 2.0 11.0 1.57 Maroon 4.0 2.0 1.0 1.0 6.0 1.0 6.0 1.50 Grey 29.5 13.0 7.0 9.5 43.5 7.0 34.5 1.27 Orange 9.5 2.0 3.0 4.5 12.5 3.0 11.5 1.21 Blue 18.0 7.0 4.0 7.0 29.0 5.0 21.0 1.17 Yellow 15.0 3.0 5.0 7.0 28.0 3.0 1.0 0.07 Black 3.0 1.0 2.0 0.0 7.0 0.0 -2.0 -0.67 Radioactive Bile 6.0 2.0 0.0 4.0 12.0 0.0 -6.0 -1.00 Pink 9.0 1.0 3.0 5.0 23.0 0.0 -17.0 -1.89
What Next?
The new school term is about to start and my hopping decisions tend to be last-minute at this time of year.  Watch @GrahamYapp on Twitter for details!