Bashley 1 – 1 Mousehole
After the disappointment of Tuesday night’s late, and possibly incorrect, postponement of our match at Willand, the Seagulls travelled to Bashley hoping to gain their first points on the road this season. Under normal circumstances a draw away at The Bash, especially after such a bad run on the road, would be celebrated joyously. Maybe it is a sign of the ambitions of Jake Ash and his flock that this draw felt like a defeat.
The big turning point came early in the match when the Bashley left winger jumped into a challenge for a long ball with Max Cook. He didn’t appear to lead with his elbow but he had no chance of getting the ball and poleaxed our young Yorkshireman. The referee deemed it worthy of a red card and the showers thus had an early customer.
It’s a cliché that it can be harder playing against ten than eleven and it proved to be the case here. With Mousehole set up to exploit space behind a forward pushing home team everything changed when the tactics of the hosts had to change. The onus was on Mousehole to push and almost play like the home team.
It nearly paid off not long after the dismissal. A great long ball from Ward out left to Hayden Turner found our number seven with room to attack the full back. He got a yard of space and clipped a cross to the far post where Jack Symons smashed a volley just over the bar.
The Seagulls’ best chance came just after the half hour. Neat interplay between Alex Cairo and Mark Goldsworthy manoeuvred the ball to Turner on the edge of the box. He took a touch to steady himself before attempting to curl it into the top corner. His plans were foiled by a bobble and the shot skewed horribly wide.
Bashley’s best chance came with half time looming. A long ball out to the right found the winger, his cross evaded the leaping forward by an inch but fell to an onrushing midfielder. His first shot was blocked and his second was well smothered.
Mousehole should have taken the lead just before the forty-five. From a throw in Gene Price slid a precise pass to Jack Symons coming in from the right. Barely ten yards out with just the keeper to beat our pint-sized poacher could only find the keeper’s barrel chest with his shot.
Level at the break was probably better than the home side could have hoped for but six minutes in to the restart the visitors finally got their reward for strong attacking intent. A long throw from Turner on the right caused chaos in the defence. James Ward flicked it forward and it bounced up perfectly for Ed Harrison to bicycle kick it past a befuddled keeper. A lovely finish from Harrison who was playing centre half in a re-jigged backline.
Frustratingly the lead only lasted eight minutes. When a long ball into the Mousehole box found Tallan Mitchell’s knee, he chased the rebound back into his box and, stretching to win it back, only succeeded in fouling the forward. The referee pointed to the spot immediately and no one complained. The spot kick was dispatched with a calm assuredness sending Ollie Chenoweth the wrong way.
From then on in, chances were few and far between with no side having the quality to open up the other’s defence. Had the Seagulls been offered a point ahead of kick off they would have bitten off your proverbial hand but playing against ten men for seventy-five minutes made this feel like two points dropped. Having said that, any point away from home is a good one and this could be the start of a strong run.
