Frome Town succumbed to a heavy defeat at the hands of Havant & Waterlooville.
Goals from Callum Kealy, Leon Maloney, Brendan Willson and a brace from Harvey Bradbury, ensured that the hosts would continue their unbeaten start to the campaign after suffering relegation from the National League South last season.
It was a similar story to how previous games have panned out, a decent start to the game, with heads dropping in the second half, not aided in the slightest by Jon Davies first half injury, with the first goal was ultimately a result of, with us having ten men on the pitch for a good 3 minutes, but plenty of chances to put the ball out of play or commit a foul to get substitute Marcus Day on.
However that never happened and a ball in behind, which was a big problem for the Frome defence all game, found its way to Kealy who latched on to it and lofted over Isaac Finch on his debut, to put the Hawks one up in the ninth minute.
The Robins had the linesman’s flag to thank in the 28th minute as Bradbury thought he doubled his sides lead after being played through and slotting home, only for it to be ruled out for offside.
Going in to the break just a goal down wouldn’t have been a disaster, a chance to re-group and go again in the second, but right on the stroke of half-time, another simple ball forward found Maloney, who had too much space to drive in to in the box and fired home, a proper sucker punch and one that did all but put the game to bed.
There was a lack of application in the second half from start to finish, the home side found it even easier to play and scored a third courtesy of a Willson header in the 58th minute.
Bradbury then got in on the action eight minutes later, firing across goal and in to the bottom corner, the whole half felt like it was played in Frome’s defensive third.
Fortunately only three minutes were added on, but that was still enough time for the hosts to grab a fifth, a counter attacking goal as Frome looked to grab a consolation but after losing possession, a quick break down the right led to Bradbury being set up and he was never going to miss from 5 yards out.
It’s a quick turnaround to the next game and a trip to Hungerford is on the cards, just the nine goals for them against Plymouth Parkway, let’s hope they’ve used them all up in that game.
Match report and live updates by Harrison Richards
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It’s time to face the harsh reality of it all. This is most definitely not about fine margins - that’s a total misconception. We are nowhere near where we need to be.
I can’t comment on the Gosport or Chertsey games as I wasn’t there.
The excuses (fine margins again standard excuse) are utter nonsense and so obviously not the case 8 games in. including two absolute thrashings.
This week again I have had to hear from staff, pod casters etc. about how , against Merthyr , it was an end to end game that could have gone either way or we could have even won that game - Absolute nonsense and so far removed from reality. Merthyr could and should…