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AFC Wallingford crashed to a 5 goal thumping at high flying Almondsbury Town on Saturday in the Hellenic premier. Wallingford travelled with high hopes after a midweek success at Kidlington but were brought crashing down by a very impressive Bristol side who cemented their position in the top 4 of the division. AFCs cause was not helped by a lack of discipline in the final 10 minutes which saw a 16 man brawl erupt on the pitch with Simon Barlow and Danny Leggett seeing red for Wallingford with Richard Kerr sent off for the home side.
AFC started well in the first few exchanges with some good passing between Leggett and Abdouli Taha in the final third of the pitch, Taha going close from 20 yards and Styles nearly getting on the end of a Paul Massaquoi corner. The home side started to show their quality however and they took the lead 15 minutes in as Paul Mckelvaney opened his toolbox of tricks to open up the Wallingford defence on the right and Winter heading home. It was nearly 2 minutes later as Ross Tyler brought down Winter, his penalty hit the post with AFC clearing but Neil Rosser then scored with a near post header from the resulting corner. The visitors tried to fight back as Andrew Styles hit a weak effort from 5 yards after Tyler’s free kick was knocked down, but it was then 3 as Adam Cole got on the score sheet with a lovely finish after fine work from Justin Bishop. The next was not long in coming as terrible defending from Fenn and Shea in the AFC goal allowed Brad Andrews to poke the ball home from close range. Wallingford finished the half with Taha and Styles both going close with good crosses from the left but King in the Town goal was never forced into a save. The 2nd half played out in much the same way, the only surprise being that Almondsbury only added 1 to their total, Richard Kerr sending a looping header into the net after a well flighted free kick from the home side’s man of the match Ben Pope. Only fine work from John Shea denied first Rosser and then Cole, the second being a fantastic tip over from a 25 yard effort dipping and bending in the wind. AFCs best chance came with 15 minutes to play as Danny Leggett broke free of 2 defenders, took the ball clear of the keeper, but as the defenders got back at him, he placed the shot just wide of the far post. Zinzee Taha, on as a sub them hit a rising left foot effort from 18 yards which had the keeper beaten but ended up just over. The game descended into farce soon after as a misplaced tackle from Leggett on Andrews resulted in a 16 man brawl, when the dust finally settled referee Keith Norris sent off Leggett and Barlow for AFC and Kerr for Town, this appeared to be the right decision from the official and the match petered out after this with both sides appearing to accept the outcome. AFC Wallingford will overall be very disappointed with a below par performance and must now strive to improve when local rivals Abingdon Town visit Hithercroft next Saturday in the Supplementary cup. AFC Wallingford: Shea, Fenn (Touray 55), Lovegrove, Ingram (Hoey 20), Barlow, Tyler, Styles (Taha, Z 50), McMahon, Taha, A, Leggett, Massaquoi. |
