THE COLLS WRAP UP POINTS IN FIRST HALF DISPLAY

 Wiltshire Senior League

PURTON FC 0 FROME COLLEGIANS FC 5

After my two week holiday in Cornwall, we left for Wiltshire to see my son and daughter in law and grandkids as my son is in the army and has recently got another promotion and are going for 2 years out to Canada next March. So it was on the look out for my football fix in the Wiltshire area and I spotted this fixture not too far away in the village of Purton.

In the morning I rang the home secretary to make sure the match was on, as these days you dont know with the covid scare and also lack of players, it was confirmed as on, so the daughter in law dropped me off, whilst she and the wife emptied my wallet round the shops of Swindon.

I was really surprised as I got there, as Purton produced a programme and also had a little tea bar, which also sold Thai food. I spoke to the gate man for a while and a chap from London. As kick off was about to begin, I stood on the half way line barrier which is nestled above the pitch, so quite a good place t look down and take photos of the match. I stood with some of the visiting clubs committee members including the Chairperson and Secretary.

Purton had gone in to the game with no points from 8 games whilst their visitors were around midtable with 14 points from their opening 8 games, so a away victory was expected.

The match kicked off and The Colls were soon on the attack and with 2 minutes on the clock, a break down the left hand side, saw BARRY SANDQUEST lob the home keeper to put his side in to a early lead.

The team from Frome were knocking the ball around and Purton were chasing shadows and a few chances for the away side went amiss along with 2 good saves from the home goalkeeper.

On 24 minutes though, Frome Collegians did get their reward and doubled their lead, this time a cross from the right was bungled home by LAURENCE LUDGATE to make it 2-0.

The Colls were ready to turn the screw now and looked dangerous going forward, the homesters were just clearing the ball and hardly getting in to the visitors half and  I feared for them that this may well end up as a cricket score after 90 minutes.

After 32 minutes it became 3-0 when OLIVER BROOK converted neatly and some of the locals began to mutter that this was the game gone for Purton, but worse was to come for them, when on 43 minutes, a cross came in from the left and BARRY SANDQUEST back headed the ball in to the net to make it 4-0.

Just as folks were thinking its cuppa coffee time they were wrong as The Colls had one more attack and gained a corner, again from the left hand side and this was met but the head of GEORGE HOLLAND who guided the ball home.

During the Half Time break, the crowd must have been thinking a double figure result here and the visitors began on the front foot, with a couple of guilty misses by their forwards, but on the hour, Purton pressed forward and a young winger had a shot just wide and then had a corner but both resulted to nothing but did raise the hopes of them getting at least one goal back. The visitors continued to press forward and still miss chance after chance including a header near on the six yard box.

In the 84th minute, the visitors went down to ten men as they had used all their subs permitted and one of their defenders had to be carried off with what looked to be a bad knee injury(we all wish him a speedy recovery).

Purton FC all credit to them on their second half performance, they kept going and didnt give up.

Both clubs are a credit to their League.

Whilst chatting to the visiting Chair and Secretary they got me a club badge, so the badge money of £3 has gone from the club in to the charity blog total and after the match in the clubhouse they donated another £5, mean while Purton FC also donated £5, so a BIG thankyou to both clubs for the kind donations, which now takes the running total to a amazing £808.75p for Family Fund, a charity that helps and supports families of children with Special Needs and Disabilities.

To see the 172 match photos, please click this LINK