Walton Casuals 3 Rams 1

The recent departures of Mitchell Sherwood and Mark Lovell gave a first start to Tom Chapman and a place on the bench to the returned Paul Axon. Ollie Gray, after his 2 goals against Faversham, retained his place whilst Luke Wheatley resumed the left back duties. However the only bright spark of a match providing turgid entertainment was the luminous orange shirts of the Stags. Incredibly, their goalkeeper Gareth Williams was awarded the man of the match accolade for a match in which he didn’t have a difficult save to make.

Unfortunately the Stags showed their aggression with a continual tirade against the referee that earned them 3 cautions for dissent and some strong arm tactics on the Rams front two of Chapman and Ian Pulman. The Rams had the best chances of the 1^st half, with a Chapman header on 3, a Gareth Cornhill free kick on 22 and Luke Wheatley dribbling through the home defence on 24, but all efforts were easily saved.

The 2^nd half is best forgotten as the Stags scored three times with their only on target efforts of the match. John Cooper made it 0-1 on 54 when he slotted home after the Rams defence stopped after the linesman had flagged, but the referee waved play on. The Stags went 2 up with an arguably harsh penalty on 71 and Richard Taylor flicked home unmarked from a corner on 76. A last kick of the game free kick from Pulman gave a disappointing scoreline a degree of respectability. (Attendance 115)

Rams: Danny Twyman, Gareth Cornhill, Luke Wheatley, Ollie Gray, Liam Quinn (c), Ben Laslett, Tom Chapman (Paul Axon 59), Warren Schulz (Simon Pettit 59), Joe Taylor, Ian Pulman, Steve O’Brien. Unused Subs: Jimmy Cole, Dave Parker.