Newport Shine As Cowes Sports And East Cowes Vics Beaten

Newport were the Isle of Wight’s only winners in the Wessex League at the weekend, with East Cowes Vics and Cowes Sports both suffering disappointing defeats.

Peter White rounds up the action…

Younie strikes it rich!

Newport’s patience was finally rewarded when they grabbed a last-gasp goal at the Smallbrook Stadium to claim a crucial 1-0 victory over Petersfield Town in Division One.

With time running out, Josh Younie took responsibility when Newport were awarded a free kick on the edge of the area, and his effort proved decisive. It kept the Island side well in contention for a place in the play-offs, especially as two of their main promotion rivals, Bemerton Heath Harlequins and Folland Sports, both dropped points. 

Newport co-manager Steve Brougham reflected:

“It was probably not one of our best performances of the season, but we got the right result, even if we did leave it late. We had an earlier effort from Jordan Browne ruled out for offside, which I thought was a bit harsh. It was a good victory in the end, but there is still a long way to go, we have just got to stick at it and see how many games we can win between now and the end of the season.”

Vics’ bad day at the office

East Cowes Vics boss Richie Woodburn accepted it was ‘a bad day at the office’ after seeing his team take the lead in their Division One match at Andover Town, only to see them crash to a 7-1 defeat. 

Ironically, Vics began brightly against the promotion contenders, even though Richie said:

“It was one of those days when everything that could go wrong, did! We were ahead through Jordan Chapman, who scored direct from a corner, but within a couple of minutes of going in front, we found ourselves 2-1 down. We had a couple more good chances, but having gifted them the equaliser, a harsh penalty decision went against us. Unfortunately, after that some of our defending was comical. To be honest, I’m trying not to remember too much about the game.”

To make matters worse, Vics skipper Liam Newbold picked up a booking which means he will miss the Island derby clash against Newport on December 27 through suspension. Richie added: “Overall, we were not good enough. If I was a teacher, I would have given a D-minus mark, and the lads would have all been in detention rather than go to their players’ Christmas party.”

Yachtsmen so inconsistent

The Inconsistencies which seem to have haunted Cowes Sports for much of the season, again came to the fore when they lost their Premier League game at United Services Portsmouth 4-1. The Yachtsmen went into the game full of confidence, but found themselves trailing by the only goal at half time. Their hopes of taking at least a point were further dented when USP added two more early in the second period. 

Manager Max Draper tried to turn things round with a couple of substitutions, and his ploy seemed to be working when Ji Nash pulled one back. But USP stood firm, and held onto their two-goal advantage, before stretching their lead with a fourth strike just three minutes from time. 

Max said:

“It was a hugely disappointing result. In the first 20 minutes we could have been three up, but we weren’t clinical enough. We went in at half time thinking positively as we’d had so many chances to score, but we came out, didn’t get started and then buckled.

“We deserved absolutely nothing from the game because we were wasteful in front of goal and defended so naively that we got bullied. Inconsistency is killing us.”

The Yachtsmen will be looking to get back to winning ways when they take on mid-table Moneyfields at Westwood Park on December 28 (3pm kick off).