Mousehole’s previous two league games had seen the home team end the match with ten men and the away side unable to take advantage of their superior numbers. This match ended with the away side ending with only nine men and yet, still, the eleven men couldn’t force the victory. And so it was that at the end of three attritional matches the Seagulls came out undefeated but with only three points to show for it.
This was only the fourth league encounter between these two sides and the Greens came into it with a 14-4 advantage and thus the uninformed attendee could have been forgiven for thinking it would be an easy home victory. A glance at the league table would have filled in the blanks by showing them that the visitors started the day fourteen points and eight places above Mousehole. The fact that Mousehole had won four one in the reverse fixture almost exactly a month ago made this an impossible match to predict. A final twist of spice was added to the fixture when the line-ups went up and the Seagulls were without Julio Fresneda due to suspension and Hayden Turner courtesy of a back injury. The headaches that this would have caused Jake Ash were added to by the fact that he himself was banned from the touchline.
With director of football, Adam Fletcher, also absent from the matchday bench, due to a non-football related transfer issue, hair that is, the home sideline was looking very sparse. That all of this disruption did not affect Mousehole’s start to the game was much to the players’ credit. Whilst Shaftesbury were marginal favourites it was the Greens who made the better chances. Shaftesbury had a number of long-range efforts ending in the car park as Mousehole came much closer in a very tight first half.
The best chance came from a free kick on the right. Jacob Kevern, starting his fourth match in a row, sent in a laser guided cross to the far post. His defensive mentor, James Ward, found himself in proverbial splendid isolation three yards out. With his heading prowess the chance screamed out for a diving header but the skipper went for the volley; sending it high in to the early evening sky and beyond the glamping field into the cricket nets.
Chances came and went at both end and just when it seemed that the oranges would be served on the back of a goal-less first half Shaftesbury mounted one more attack. The ball bounced in the Mousehole box half way between the forward and Kaleb Kadimashi and as our former Arsenal academy graduate went to make a challenge the ball had gone and he bundled the forward over. The referee pointed to the spot immediately. The resulting kick, by Santos, was sent past Chenoweth in spite of him correctly predicting its trajectory and moments later the half ended.
Mousehole felt aggrieved, not so much at the penalty decision, but at the unfairness of having the better chances but going in behind. They started the second half with a determination to put that right and to match the build-up quality with some equal measure in the finishing.
The game took a major turn a few minutes into the second half when Shaftesbury were reduced to ten men. A fifty-fifty challenge, between Kevern and the Shaftesbury goal scorer, near the halfway line, ended with Santos shoulder-barging the Mousehole man in to the advertising boards. Kevern went straight through it, Dukes’ Street for the record, and landed in a heap beside the pitch. It took a number of minutes for the Mousehole physio to treat Kevern and this gave the referee a long time to make a decision. Ultimately, he decided to show the forward a second yellow card and so with over half an hour to go Mousehole had the numerical advantage.
Ten minutes later the numbers were even more uneven following a contretemps involving Tallan Mitchell. The Mousehole number ten got up from the ground following a robust challenge by Shaftesbury’s Brandon Mundy. Whatever it was that Mitchell said to the visiting midfielder it resulted in the burly barger shoving his shoulder into our number ten’s chest sending him flying to the ground. The referee half saw it, but the home fans and more importantly, the nearside assistant referee had clear views. Following consultation with his ‘helper’ the referee ordered Mundy to join his team mate in the shower. Not literally of course!
With twenty-five minutes remaining the question was; could the massed defence, a formation of 4-4-0, hold out the marauding Seagulls? This became like a practise match of attack versus defence as almost the whole of the second half was played at the Solomon Browne end. Wave after wave of attacks crashed against the unbreakable dam of red and white shirts with no real clear-cut chances being made. It felt like the home side were too eager to lump the ball in to the box or try to play the magic ball rather simply passing around a tiring back line.
With ninety minutes gone it was still one nil and the question now was, “how long will the ref add on?”. The answer was ten minutes and as the board went up the crowd roared on the greens. Still, the visiting defence held firm and as time slipped away like water down a plughole, hope of a goal was disappearing with it. It was all hands to the pump and James Ward had been sent up to join Goldie and Prynn in the hope that one of them could get on the end of a cross. It finally happened with five minutes of added time gone. Mitchell found Kadimashi on the left, he jinked past his full back and flung the ball across to perfectly find Wardy advancing on goal. This time he did the decent thing and used his head to smash the ball home.
With five minutes still to go either team could have won it and both tried but to no avail. In the end a point for Shaftesbury was no less than their nine men deserved. And for Mousehole, was it two points dropped or a point gained? The end of the season will give us the answer to that. For now, it’s another Tuesday fixture to contend with as we travel to Brixham.
