Brockenhurst 5 Wincanton Town 1

8 March 2025

Before I start today, one quick note for the eager blog-watchers… for storage capacity reasons, I’ve had to delete the older reports.  I’ve kept the season reviews, but… season 2022/23 is no more.  Those of us who lived through it, from the -7 degrees at Stoneham through Heath’s save against Pagham, right up to the glorious, season-saving victory over Moneyfields, might not be sorry to see it gone!  They are of course still available on request (haha).

OK, here we go again: a third game in a row against one of the teams in the lower to middle reaches of the table, both seeking those last few points to secure their future in the top flight… Brock missing captain Wellman and left-back Drake through injury, not perhaps ideal. 

But here, finally, was the performance the Badgers had been hiding in their back pocket since about August.  Positive throughout, front-footed, all the best players on the pitch were in blue; the result didn’t flatter them.  Brock looked dangerous from the first, when Atiako-Hall couldn’t quite take Gray’s clever pass with him, but the final ball wasn’t quite there, and the Wasps did have their moments – O’Hare getting in the way of one piledriver shot which might otherwise have made Valero work.  Even so, the crowd was mostly looking in one direction: the Badgers should have scored on the half-hour when Atiako-Hall, leading the line brilliantly all afternoon, won a header in the box and Adams hooked over from inside the six-yard box.  Five minutes later: a neat pass, Bunce with the shot across goal, off the inside of the post and back along the line, collected again by Bunce with another powerful shot, again off the inside of the post from a tight angle but this time going over the line to give Brock a deserved lead.  And it opened the floodgates: 37 minutes, clever play on the left between Gray and Demira, whose intelligent pass was controlled by Adams and calmly converted for 2-0.   Demira then set Walker clear, but his drive found the side-netting… two minutes before the break, Atiako-Hall with another super run, his pass took out most of the defence and Adams passed the ball home for the third.  One late warning for the Badgers, sloppy defending allowed Hodges to get to the byline and pull the ball back, but O’Hare sliced wide.  HT 3-0

So, how would the Wasps react?  With greater urgency, but still not accurate enough with their passing to overly trouble the Badgers.  Another terrific move on 63 minutes: Adams with an incisive pass to Gray, Atiako-Hall and keeper Ball seemed to reach the ball at the same time and it squirmed up and off the bar – and when it came down, Bunce calmly made it 4-0.  And then minutes later, Burgess pinched the ball in the opposition box and after a bit of a scramble, it was that man again Harry Bunce, picking up the pieces to complete his hat-trick.  Fair play to Wincanton; well beaten but they kept going, and came very close after a corner was cleared out to the right and Williams turned and hit a curling shot just beyond the far post.  And then, four minutes into overtime, the only real blot on Brock’s afternoon – another long ball, for once not shepherded away from goal, turned in by Crisp.  On we played, and O’Hare headed over from close range a moment later, at which point the ref (who was good all afternoon, despite being hit with the ball twice in two minutes) blew for time.  FT 5-1

What a time to be alive!  I’ve thought a few rude and unflattering things about this team just lately, wondering why such a talented group of players weren’t quite hitting it off.  Today proved what they can do, and it was a joy to watch.  Best performance of the season, I would venture.  Ben was named man of the match, and he was indeed outstanding up top: but you know, Harry scored a hat-trick, Rhys and Luke were magnificent, Jake scored two – and that’s not fair, because this was a day when everyone deserves the credit.  Results elsewhere made it an even better day for Brock, and now we can look forward to the rest of the season and, hopefully, a few more performances like this please lads!