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Wallingford crashed to a disappointing defeat at home to Wantage after a scrappy performance with a weakened team.
Aaron Baker forced visiting keeper Terry Burton into saving with his legs with a low right foot shot after 5 minutes. Wallingford then thought they had taken the lead a couple of minutes later, Abdouli Taha chipped in a perfect throughball and Baker rounded Burton to tap into the empty net, but the referee’s assistant had his flag up for offside. Burton was called into five minutes later when he came well out of his area to get to a throughball before Baker. Andrew Styles got to the rebound first and lobbed the ball from 40 yards, but the ball bounced agonisingly into the top of the net. The visitors took the lead when the dangerous Gavin Jones latched onto a ball from Hartley. John Shea got a hand to his shot, but could not prevent the ball from looping over him and bouncing into the net. Ten minutes later Jones doubled the visitors lead, using his pace to beat the Wallingford offside trap and although Shea did well to block his shot, he got to the rebound first to make it 2-0. Just five minutes after the restart the game was effectively over as a free-kick from Tom Austin was flicked on and Gary Hartley rose to place a glancing header over Shea. Hartley was then denied by Shea from close range after some poor defending from the home side. Wallingford began to play their best football in the last quarter of a hour. A Baker pass found Taha making a run through the middle, but Burton came out well to block his shot. Taha then retrieved the ball of the left and crossed into the centre where Styles missed a great opportunity from five yards out. With five minutes left Massaquoi put Baker clear, but Burton did well again, making a double save from Baker and Taha. In an exciting finale Shea denied Hartley again from 10 yards, then the same player hit the post with just the keeper to beat. Substitute Foday Touray then had a shot deflected inches over for Wallingford, but it was just not their day and in truth Wantage deserved their win. AFC Wallingford: Shea, Boateng (Sedu 88), Massaquoi, Lovegrove, Ingram, Fellows (Z Taha 80), Styles (Touray 75), Fofanah, Baker, A.Taha, McMahon. |
