Sat. 18th October. Southern League South. Frome Town 1- 1 Winchester City
Frome Town were held to a 1-1 draw at Badgers Hill against a strong Winchester City side in front of an amazing crowd of 525 supporters.
It was a fast start for Danny Greaves’ side in this huge encounter as the Dodge saw themselves go one nil up inside four minutes after a great cross from Albie Hopkins found Archie Ferris with acres of space inside the six-yard box to tap home.
It was never going to be straightforward for the hosts however, as Kyle Phillips put in an excellent man of the match performance, making some very crucial saves. The first of those came after 15 minutes when Conor Lynch went racing into the box for the Citizens, though he was thwarted by the veteran number one for Frome Town.
Lynch did not seem to dwell on that miss for too long however as just before the half hour mark, he drew his side level, slotting past Phillips from point blank range.
Winchester were then forced into making a first half change in the 36th minute when Lewis Brown replaced Daniel King. And it did not take long for the substitute to make an impact forcing a fantastic, full stretched save from Phillips from long range.
A close first-half then drew to a close, the hosts certainly had the brighter start in the game but it was Winchester who grew more into the game and created the more chances towards the end of the first 45 minutes.
Frome looked revitalised in the second half and were more of a threat. On the hour mark, Charlie Bullock delivered a cross for Hopkins but the Winchester City keeper, Tommy Scott, stood firm. David Duru also had an effort spurned after 70 minutes before he won a penalty for the Robins about five minutes later. The number 16 rounded the keeper and Scott had no choice but to hack him down inside the area, the referee not hesitating in pointing to the spot.
It was Hopkins who stepped up to take the spot kick, but unfortunately Scott made a big save for the Citizens as he dived to his right to prevent his team from going 2-1 down.
The match then stayed that way for the rest of the 90 minutes; there was only one big scare for the hosts deep into injury time as Domenico Cameron Panesar went through one-on- one with a glorious opportunity to win the game for Winchester. But Phillips proved he was worthy of his man of the match award, producing another great stop to keep the valuable point intact for Frome.
Next up for the Dodge they travel away to Portishead Town on Tuesday night, who will be going into that game with a good amount of confidence having won the last three games on the spin.
Report: Harry Minton
Pictures: Steve McCarthy
