Shaftesbury Town 1-2 Norton OBC

JUMBO NAILS HOME WINNER AS SHAFTESBURY SEAL THEIR OWN DEMISE AS REFEREE ABANDONS GAME!

A dramatic end to a dramatic game as the referee abandoned the game due an alleged racist incident involving the referee and some of the Shaftesbury players. Jesse Jumbo fired in a superb winner two minutes after Dean Barnes had put the OBC back in the game with a thumping equaliser to cancel out another OBC own goal from Ally Hann. A makeshift defence, a new tactical formation, the same one hundred percent effort from the lads. The cup victory is the first for the club in nine attempts.

After the Christmas Cracker at Garratt Park it was back to business in the cup. Mel looked to put in a good stint after being savaged in the press last week. With conceding seven last week Joicey opted to return to the centre of defence to help give the back line more solidity. Barry Jones was recalled to be a makeshift left back and Ally Hann returned to make his first appearance since the end of October. Marc Stewart continued at centre back. With Leroy Donald cup-tied and Dean Barrett injured, Joicey had a tactical dilemma having no natural outlet on the left and coupled to that the OBC had a powerful central Shaftesbury midfield to contend with. The answer, a Sam Allardyce inspired 4-5-1. Ben Ssebatta, Jesse Jumbo and the returning Mark McEwan would sit in the middle of midfield to contend with their strong number 8, and captain, Wayne, whilst sitting in front of the back four breaking up the play. Joe and Dean Barnes would play behind Neil Sobers the lone striker and both Dean and Joe would drop into midfield when the OBC did not have the ball. Barry would have to contend with their tricky No 7 who showed Max a clean pair of heels in the 3-3 draw earlier in the season at Garratt Park. Ally also had to face down those that had chased him off the pitch after the end of the last encounter. The game was set up to be a cracker as Shaftesbury looked to continue their unbeaten run. Joicey struck with a fever in the night had to deal with a heavy cold but in the end it was to be Norton’s day as everyman did their best.

Joicey won the first battle of day as the coin landed in heavy, muddy ground, “heads” and we opted to stay as we were. From that moment nearly everything went the OBC’s way. Shaftesbury mounted early pressure and created their best opportunity of the game in the opening two minutes when the tricky number 7 was able to play in their bulky number nine inside Joicey. Mel rushed off his line and the number 9’s shot curled around Mel but came back off the post and then was cleared by Barry at left back.

From a stuttering start the OBC defence began to solidify as Marc and Joicey were able to mop up the ball and deal with the Shaftesbury strikers with relative ease. In midfield Mark McEwan and Jesse did a two man job on their number 8 and minimalised his influence. Ben looked to break down the right with Joe, and Den Barnes did some good defensive duties on the left of centre of the park, helping out Barry.

Shaftesbury had a lot of possession and forced some corners but with Joicey keeping a close eye on Wayne their main threat was snuffed out. The first twenty minutes were dominated by the home team but they could not break through the back four and the battling midfield. The seeds of controversy were sown in the first half when a Shaftesbury through ball was met with by Mel, but in doing so Mel clattered into Marc Stewart. Marc clearly hurt. The referee stopped the play and Mel put the ball on the ground as Marc got treatment. Shaftesbury started to get impatient and their number 7 ran up to Mel and put the ball in the back of net. Mel said to the ref “I am not getting that ref” and the referee made the number 7 return the ball to the spot where Mel had left the ball. Marc said he would be able to continue and the referee kicked the ball back to Mel to play on. The number 7 was warned and could have been booked for his actions but the ref let it go. Common sense seemed to prevail.

The second period of the half belonged to the OBC. Joe was put in by Ben who rounded the Shaftesbury keeper only to be denied by the post as Joe shot from a wide angle on the left of the six yard box. Neil was put through by Dean Barnes but the keeper made a good save with his feet as Neil looked to score. Dean Barnes then struck the cross bar with a dipping curling effort from twenty five yards out. The ball looked to be sailing in but the ball would not drop that extra inch and Shaftesbury survived. The OBC now started to dominate the possession and forced some corners but nothing came of them.

The last attack of the half came from Shaftesbury Town. A good bit of play from there number 7 seen him race past Barry and he managed to square the ball for their number nine on the edge of the area but his touch and control let him down and Marc was able to clear. Shaftesbury maintained the late pressure as they managed to box us in with long throw ins and corners. Ally cleared from under the bar and the referee blew for half time, a hard worked but well deserved 0-0.

At the half time team talk Joicey said that there was nothing between the two sides they were not creating too many clear chances and that we actually had created the better of the chances and were unlucky not be a goal up. One goal might be enough to nick it, the effort people were putting was excellent.

The second half kicked off and Ben found himself on the edge of the area and fired in a shot that drifted wide of the right hand post. Again, Shaftesbury had a lot of the ball but were unable to create any significant chances. The closest they came to scoring was when Wayne got to the back post but his own full back cut across him and got in the way headbutting the number 8 also in the process and the ball went out for a goal kick. But it was from another Norton gaffe that the deadlock was finally broken.

A long punt up the field, Ally had time to clear but as usual managed to slice the ball up and over Mel into the top left hand corner of net to put Shaftesbury 1-0 up. Another goal from an individual OBC mistake. Ally had been solid up to that point and again with just under thirty minutes to go, the OBC got themselves into another uphill struggle.

Norton went in search of the equaliser but the ball would not drop for us. Joe had a shot well saved from close range. Dean Barnes had another dipping curling effort tipped around the post as the keeper made a miraculous save to keep the score at 0-1.

At the other end, their number 7 broke into the box and Mel rushed out to make a brilliant save a palm the ball out for a corner as the tricky winger was able to turn past Barry and Joicey. Mel was solid all game and put a much improved performance for the big game. The corner was taken as a short corner down on the left. Barry managed to thwart the advancing number 7 but on this was the occasion where the game turned. Breaking into the area the number 7 fired a well struck shot and as Barry dived in, the ball clearly struck a raised arm from the flailing Barry. The referee said that it was ball to hand and the OBC got away with it. Now the Shaftesbury players were starting to get niggly with the referee’s decisions and the referee started taking the criticism to heart.

Ally was fouled on the half way line and looked to swing in the free kick. Ally aimed the cross to the back post where Joicey and Dean Barnes were waiting. The ball caused havoc in the Shaftesbury defence and the ball landed at Dean’s feat after they failed to clear. On his left foot, Barnes was given a space to run into as their centre back moved to mark Joicey and the full back was the wrong side of Dean thus Dean was able to advance to the edge of the six yard box and blast a high finish past there keeper to level it up a 1-1. When the two defenders parted it was clear that they were in for trouble and Dean made no mistake for his 21^st goal of the season. 72 minutes gone and the game was back in our hands.

In a flash 1-1 became 2-1. Again, Ally was fouled on the right, cue complaints from Shaftesbury, which resulted in a booking for their player for persistent complaining. Again Ally swung in another good ball which Shaftesbury were unable to deal with. As the ball was lofted in, I accidentally stood on the centre back’s toe and he went down on the six yard box. The ball found its way to Dean Barnes who found Mark McEwan on the edge of the box who put through Jesse into the area and Jesse thumped in a finish from the top drawer to put us 2-1 up as they claimed for offside to their own lino but as there centre half was still down in the box Jesse was on side and the ref gave the goal. Jesse’s 5^th goal of the season. Queue mass arguments from the home side.

The Shaftesbury players claimed that the game should have stopped as in the first half when Marc was treated. The difference was when Marc got injured we had the ball. Mel only put the ball down as it was clear that the referee had stopped the game. The incident involving me and the centre back happened so quick in the midst of a Norton attack that the ref might not have even noticed the accidental collision off the ball. 2-1 Norton with just 15 minutes to go.

Shaftesbury kicked off and played a through ball down the left and Joicey was able to mop the ball up and boot the ball far into touch. That would be the last action of the game as something happened up the field. The referee called the two captains over to the touchline and made every player stand in the centre circle. Joicey heard one bemused Shaftesbury player say as he made my way over to the side line that perhaps the referee wanted us to do a minutes silence for the passing away of Motherwell’s, Phil O’Donnell.

The referee said this to both of us; “now I am speaking to you to because I am not going to tolerate being called racist because of the colour of my skin, let me speak.” The Shaftesbury captain interrupted and said that he wanted the referee to show more respect to him and his players. Joicey said nothing and just listened, head bowed. With the referee not being able to make his point to the other side then said to us that he does not come to referee games to endure comments of what he thought were of a racist nature. As a result, the referee said to us that he was abandoning the game. I said “Ok, referee it is your call” and announced to all the players that the match had been abandoned. The referee took Joicey aside alone and said that he was going to file a report to the FA and that the tie was abandoned due to an alleged racist incident after 75 minutes with Norton 2-1 up and the matter was now in the hands of the FA.

Joicey spoke with the Shaftesbury manager after the game when the situation had calmed down and said, “your own actions got your team into trouble with the referee and you shot yourself in the foot today, really”. The Shaftesbury manager agreed and looked forward to our league game in the coming months. Norton OBC go through to face Old Plymouthonians in the 2^nd Round on 19.01.2007 at their place in Wallington, South Croydon.

Peter Joicey
06.01.2008