Sat. 5th October. Southern League Div. One AFC Totton 2 Frome Town 3
Frome Town got back to winning ways and picked up a valuable 3 points away at AFC Totton.
On a superb pitch Frome started brightly with flowing and attacking football and created chances from the outset, with the hosts firmly on the back foot. Mannings opened the scoring in the 6th minute when a fierce Davis shot from outside the area bounced back off the post and he was there to follow up. Joe O’Loughlin doubled the lead on 14 minutes with a superb left foot drive from 25 yards, giving the home goalkeeper no chance and it appeared that victory would be comfortable at this point.
Football has a habit of surprising you though and a sloppy defensive pass saw the hosts break clear and score past Brown in the Frome goal in the 21st minute. Two minutes later the right winger cut inside and unleashed a fine curling ball into the top corner, giving the goalkeeper no chance. This put an end to Frome’s passing game and they resorted to ineffective long balls and the half drew to a close with Rob Brown making two first class saves to keep the teams level.
It would only to be expected that the second half couldn’t live up to the first and so it proved, with a fairly even start and neither creating any real chances. The game turned on the hour mark when Kane Simpson got free of the last man and was through on goal when the keeper brought him down. Everyone was expecting a penalty but the referee awarded a free kick on the edge of the area, resulting in a straight red card for the goalkeeper and an outfield player forced into goal. Davies took the resultant free kick which hit the wall, but he was on hand to score the rebound and put Frome back ahead. There were a few more breaks, but the stand-in goalkeeper was not troubled as the game petered out to an ultimately satisfying finish.
Man of the match Rob Brown.
