Sholing McLean Up at Wembley

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Saturday 10 May 2014 at Wembley Stadium
Result	Sholing 1 West Auckland Town 0
Competition	FA Vase – Final (Step 5)
Hopping	18th visit to the “new” Wembley and here to support Sholing FC.
Pre-match preparation
Both teams have had very heavy fixture workloads in recent times given their fixture pileups.  Sholing have taken the Wessex League title and will return to step 4 after this season of voluntary demotion (assuming they choose to do so).  West Auckland finished 5th in the Northern League.  Here are their respective routes to Wembley. First Round: Winchester City 0-1 Sholing West Auckland 5-0 South Shields Second Round: Follands Sports 1-2 Sholing West Auckland 1-0 Shildon Third Round: Reading Town 1-4 Sholing West Auckland 2-1 Billingham Synthonia Fourth Round: Sholing 3-1 Hullbridge Sports Whickham 1-3 West Auckland (aet) Fifth Round: Sholing 1-0 Larkhall Athletic West Auckland 2-0 Hallen Sixth-Round: Sholing 1-0 Wisbech Town Dunston UTS 0-1 West Auckland Semi-Final: Sholing 6-4 Eastbourne United (aggregate – 2-2 & 4-2) West Auckland 2-1 St Andrews (aggregate – 0-0 and 2-1) EXCLUSIVE TO MHR: Sholing FC have arrived at Wembley and places are set in the changing room. (Pic Credit to Dave Fear of Sholing FC)
This match in one sentence
A close and often tense encounter won by a solitary goal and with the Sholing goalkeeper nominated as the official man-of-the-match.
So what?
Sholing are the first southern winners of the FA Vase for seven seasons after a period of Northern League domination.  They will be presented to the crowd at St Mary's before the Southampton v Manchester United game on Sunday. For West Auckland, the tough experience (though still a great achievement for a step 5 club) of losing at Wembley twice in three years.
The drama unfolds
With hindsight, the first half was forgettable but I reckon that was in the plan for both sides, who paced themselves ready for a full 90 or 120 minutes.  Sholing keeper Matt Brown, or his feet anyway, were called into action after five minutes after a great through ball set John Campbell free.  Sholing’s first chance fell to Lee Wort five minutes later but this time the other keeper Jordan Nixon was able to block.  I took my scene-setter clip at around the midpoint of the first half.  The sides are “sparring” rather than beating each other up.  Sholing are in red and white. West Auckland’s Andrew Green got the first yellow card of the day for a late tackle.  The best chance so far then fell to Sholing’s Marvin McLean who curled a shot wide when the top corner looked inviting, but West Auckland replied with chances of their own.  My second clip, just before the break, shows Brown flying across the goal to save a freekick from Rob Briggs.  0-0 at half-time The second half was better from the start as the rain started.  Sholing made a good start territorially and a shot from distance went just wide.  Barry Mason was then denied by an instinctive save from Nixon, before Mattie Moffat shot over the bar at the other end.  Sholing’s Lewis Fennemore went in the book for a missed tackle as the ground conditions worsened with the rain and players began to tire a little.  Campbell had another half-chance and another Sholing defender, Lee Bright, saw yellow.  That tackle was late enough to be recorded on the next page of the diary.  The only goal of the game came amid sun and showers.  The credit goes to Marvin McLean but there was maybe a deflection which helped the ball to loop slowly over Nixon.  If not, it was a clever disguised chip.  1-0 after 71 mins Let the celebrations begin!  1-0 West Auckland could have levelled immediately as a low driven cross fizzed right through the six-yard box, and Sholing looked to be rocking at the back as West Auckland were forced to press forward.  Brown removed any lingering doubt in the man-of-the-match adjudicator’s mind with a flying save followed by another at his near post, and another just to underline his contribution  This was another flyer to tip over a freekick from Steven Richardson.  Sholing sub Alex Sawyer ended up in the book and as the match entered stoppage time, West Auckland’s Brian Close was booked for a cynical foul but there was still time for them to hit the woodwork with moments to go.  So close to extra-time, but Sholing won this trophy with a sound all-round performance with no weak links and backed up with a keeper in great form. Here's the clip from the closing stages which shows how close West Auckland came to getting a shot at extra time.  Final score 1-0 Joy and despair in equal measure: Classy from West as they watch the rest of the presentation
Ground Pix
Match Pix
Huddle Stats
Nothing to report today.
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats
Green for Sholing beat Blue for West Auckland. 2013-14 Summary so far: 3pts for a win, 1pt for a draw, -1pt for a goal conceded and +5pts for a clean sheet P W D L GA (-1 each) CS (5 each) Pts Pts per Game Purple 1 1 0 0 0 1 8 8.00 Grey 12 7 2 3 13 5 35 2.92 Red 3 2 0 1 3 1 8 2.67 Green 12 6 1 5 16 3 18 1.50 Yellow 5 1 2 2 9 1 1 0.20 Orange 3 1 1 1 6 0 -2 -0.67 Radioactive Bile 3 1 0 2 6 0 -3 -1.00 Pink 7 1 3 3 16 0 -10 -1.43 Blue 4 0 1 3 7 0 -6 -1.50
What Next?
Watch @GrahamYapp on Twitter for details!

The Jackson Three

Guard of honour from the youth teams and a pigeon club in the background!

 

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Saturday 21 April at the VT Sports Ground, Portsmouth Rd
Result	Sholing 2 Halesowen Town 3
Competition	Southern League Division One South & West (Step 4)
Hopping	Lifetime list #464
This match in one sentence
An odd game in which both sides looked likely to win at various stages, settled by a penalty meaning that the visitors twice came from behind..
So what?
Sholing were already guaranteed a playoff place, but this result means an away game at either Poole Town or Gosport Borough for the semi-final.  They will finish 4th or 5th depending on next weekend’s results.  Halesowen Town are safely embedded in mid-table.
Something random
Sholing is the re-named VT FC and the old Vosper Thornycroft Pigeon Club house is within the ground.
The drama unfolds
In bright sunshine, Halesowen had the better of the opening exchanges before Sholing took the lead after 7 minutes with a gift-wrapped comedy goal.  Halesowen centre-back Brendan Kelly’s back-header was too strong for the arriving goalkeeper Paul Evans, and Sholing’s leading scorer Lee Wort had an age and an empty net to open the scoring.  1-0 At that precise moment in time, Sholing had ten men on the pitch with full-back Marc Diaper receiving treatment to his ankle.  They nearly added a second when left-winger Marvin McLean reached the byline after a great run, but the visiting defence just about coped.  There was an end-of-season atmosphere about the game, with players getting plenty of time on the ball and both trying to play on the floor.  Sholing were now on top, so I headed towards the goal they were attacking just in time for Halesowen to equalise at the other end.  Marcus Jackson broke through from the right and placed an excellent shot to the far corner.  He’s a double-somersaulter by way of celebration.  1-1 Here’s a clip to set the scene. Barry Mason creates Sholing's second On 32 minutes, Sholing regained the lead.  Barry Mason did superbly well, although given plenty of space, to control a high ball on the right.  His low driven cross was parried initially by Evans but then Wort set up Byron Mason for a splendid finish.  There was no further scoring before half-time but I have one more clip which almost has an overhead kick.  2-1 After a half-time chat with the ref’s dad – yes, I can confirm that this one does indeed have a parent – the second half began in changing weather conditions.  The wind started to swirl and rain threatened.  I positioned myself in anticipation of a third Sholing goal.  Here’s an early clip and an if-only moment. They should indeed have had the third on the hour mark.  Wort was unselfish and set up McLean for an unmissable chance, which he scuffed, so given that strikers will only be so unselfish once in a decade, we won’t see that again. Sholing were forced to replace their keeper, Mike Hookway coming on for Lee Webber.  Halesowen subs Jean-Michel Gueyes and Nathan Jones combined from left to centre, and Jones’ shot brought a flying one-handed save from Hookway.  Unfortunately, it fell to Marcus Jackson in space who fired in from distance and we saw the double-somersault once again.  2-2 Both sides had half-chances as we entered the last 15 minutes.  It took what appeared to be a soft penalty to win it.  I think the decision is for handball but from the other end I wasn’t sure.  Marcus Jackson grabbed the ball and negotiated the hat-trick opportunity – here’s the clip showing job done and the trademark.  2-3 Sholing sub Jack McCarthy had a half-chance with a header within a minute and I took two more clips as Sholing pressed for a point.  The last one has the final whistle.  Final score 2-3
Man-of-the-Match
Hard to look beyond the somersaulting hat-trick hero for Halesowen, Marcus Jackson.  For Sholing, the wide play of Barry Mason and Marvin McLean always looked threatening.
A snippet from the programme
“The Boatmen have a long but fragmented history, running teams from the Woolston Works as early as 1884… Woolston Works won the first ever Hampshire Cup Final in 1888, beating Winchester 2-0.  There was some controversy that year concerning Woolston’s professional attitude, which was infamously referred to as “Kesson’s Boots”.  Andover were beaten in an earlier round, in a match in which a Glasgow-based player of that name played a prominent part.  Andover protested that Kesson should be disqualified on the grounds of residency.  Although he had played for Woolston Works earlier in the season, he had since moved back to Glasgow.  Woolston’s appeal rested on the fact that he had left a number of clothing items at his local lodgings, and this should be interpreted as evidence of his intention to return.  The Hampshire FA upheld the appeal and allowed Kesson to play.”
What I learned today
Many thanks to Sholing FC in general and in particular reserve team manager Dave Fear for their hospitality today.  For the record, Dave’s team have not so much won this season's Wyvern Combination League as smacked, owned, pwned, qwned, rwned and swned it.  Their lead stands at 20pts before today and will end up as at least 14. For the second week running I encountered a player with a WBA link – Halesowen are managed these days by Shaun Cunnington.  They also have a few ex-WBA academy players on their books, but none on the pitch today.
What Next?
Other commitments mean that I will be hopping somewhere in or around Hertfordshire next Saturday, and at the time of writing I am not sure about midweek, so as ever, watch @GrahamYapp on Twitter for details.