Evening Echo report Tuesday 4th March

Twynham Rangers are through to the Final of The Hampshire Junior A Cup after emerging 3-1 winners from a superbly contested all Bournemouth contest with Malt and hops United.

Gareth Brickhill gave Rangers an early lead and Alan Etherton showed excellent technique when he added another just before the interval.
Ryan Butcher pulled one back for United but any hopes they had of getting back on terms were soon dashed when Brickhill raced clear to blast home his second goal of the game.



Saturday 23rd February
Malt 1 Alderholt 1

Its a Funny old game (Jimmy Greaves)

And it was!!!!

The Malt went in to this game determined to beat promotion rivals Alderholt and we should have.
We had plenty of chances in the first half and only Mick managed to convert one to go joint top scorer with Chiv who didnt score for once.

Alderholt came back in the second half and it was only due to a dodgy linesman (not) that they managed to get a penalty after Jack handballed on the line, he was sent off.

It was an uphill struggle from there on but the Malt managed to salvage a draw even though we did have a couple of chances to clinch the win.

Man of Match Nick Clark never stopped running and had a chance to win the game in the last five minutes.




Saturday 16th February
Winton CC 0 Malt 4

The Malt cruised the game with a well deserved 4-0 win, it should have been more.

Chiv scored two, amazingly one with his feet, Brett and Sean with his first goal of the season scored the other two.
We were never looked troubled at the back with MOM Ed and the rest of our rapidly improving defence holding strong.

Alderholt on Saturday its a big game with Portcastrians faltering for the Third week running.

Well played guys!!!!



Saturday 9th February
Iford
Malt V Cherry Bees
Attendance 10


MAN OF MATCH...... STU COOK

The Malt continued winning ways with a strong performance against the Bees.
The scoreline however didnt reflect the game, it was a very open affair and the Malt should have stung the bees for at least five more goals but once again our finishing let us down.

Then there was Chiv, who cant stop scoring since he became a dad again. He rose like a Meer Kat again to score the only goal of the game.

All round a good performance



SATURDAY 2ND FEBRUARY
MALT 1 INFINITY 0
QUARTER FINAL HAMPSHIRE CUP

The Malt hosted The team from Southampton who showed they had come to play attacking Football from the off.

The Malt spent most of the First Half on the back foot but the defence held strong with Man of Match Jonesy commanding the area and pulling off some great saves.
The second half was much the same and chances were rare for The Malt until Chivo rose like a meerkat to put the Malt ahead.
The defence held strong and the whole team battled to keep the lead. A few sighs of releif were heard willowing across Iford as the final whistle blew.
A great battling performance against a good side.

Record Attendance.... about 20




Sat 26th Jan Iford Rec

Attendance 9 (7 Humans) (2 Dogs)

A local derby versus league leaders and inevitable champions Portcastrians turned out much closer than the league table suggested it might.Both sides had opportunities in the earlier exchanges notably Chivs effort with the keeper to beat just going wide. At the other end,a barriage of centres in to the Malts penalty box were being dealt with by a resolute defence & Jonah was back to his brilliant self after last weeks unfortuate slip and looked unbeatable from the off.The game was being played in a good 'local derby' spirit with many late hefty challenges but little complaints from either sets of players, this made the Referee's job somewhat easier. Unfortunately, the home side lost Micky Butcher playing at right back to a knee injury, this meant Jack slotting in for him and new signing Chris coming into the centre of the park.

The Malt ended the first half with some optimism that the game was winnable and the away team looked somewhat irritated and on reflection may have believed they were second best. The second half was a different story from the off, Porcastrians manager, all 6 ft 6 ' of him put himself on the left side of midfield and made the biggest impact on the game so far by setting up a well finished goal, his aerial power was the difference.The home side did not give up hope and were rewarded with a deserved equaliser a few minutes later,Chiv rising at the far post to plant a text book header past the stranded away keeper, game on!!

The late challenges continued, not really a problem with either sets of players happy to take it and get on with it. However, the ref decided enough was enough and brandished one or two yellow cards, understandable really. The later exchanges started to tilt towards the away side and they sneaked a winner with several minutes to go, a long throw resulted in slight hesitancy from the home defence and the away team striker pounced to net his brace, again well finished.The scoreline remained the same and reflected two evenly matched competitive teams prepared to battle to the end. Points dropped for the Malt but one of our best performances of the season.Well done lads.

Also, credit to the Referee who didn’t put a foot wrong all day & commented on how much he enjoyed the game.



MOM .... Jonesy