GoCre8 Conference North League
Wotton Under Edge 4 Swindon 1

WOTTON played Swindon in a friendly last year and knew from that that Swindon would give Wotton little time on the ball. 
Starting the game, Swindon pressed high stopping any transfer around the back. This did however, leave large spaces between the mid-field and attack and Wotton knew that the best chance in the game would be on the counter attack. 
The first goal came within 10 minutes, when Ryan Howarth won the ball from a Swindon defender and drove to the base line where he hit it back across the goal for Andy Edwards to push it into the back of the net. 
Wotton once again found it hard to string passes together due to the Swindon high press. However, the Wotton defence held strong and even when Swindon managed to get a string of short corners, the commanding Wotton captain, Ali Hammond, was there to stop them. 
Unfortunately, during this passage of play defender James Cruickshank, got knocked to the ground while chasing back to the goal and was briefly knocked unconscious. Fortunately, veteran Mark Pullin replaced him to steady the play. 
Wotton then pushed back at Swindon which resulted in Andy Edwards picking a bouncing ball up on the right hand side of the D, and with his back to goal, turned quickly to hit the ball across the D where Howarth then tapped it passed the goalkeeper. 
The second half started with Swindon not pressing so high, which allowed Wotton to gain more control. Good upfront leg work from Ash Langham saw the ball going across the D passed the keeper to an awaiting Howarth stick, which allowed him to score his trademark reverse stick goal. 
Some good work from the ever-green Dave Newns in midfield meant that Wotton could keep attacking with pace. Swindon was still not out of the game, taking the ball down the left side, they managed to get past Wotton’s strong defence with some good skill from their striker and getting a free shot at the top of the D for an easy goal. 
Swindon then began to push high again, and began to pose a little bit more of threat to the Wotton side. However, this was then broken, when Matt Fairburn took the play passed two Swindon players to hit the ball into the D for Howarth to complete his hat-trick with a deflection passed the keeper taking the final score to a 4-1 win to Wotton. 
There were good performances from the ever reliable George Lampkin in goal, Ash Lingham and Michael Buist. 
This weekend Wotton look to take on another tough opponent away to Hereford firsts.