Competition

Date

Saturday 20th November 2010

Match Report By Steve Butt of the Swindon Advertiser

(Pictures courtesy of Richard Burley of Espressivo Photography (Norfolk), click to enlarge

Swindon Supermarine stung by late, late winner

It was another late, late show for Swindon Supermarine, but this time Mark Collier’s men were on the wrong end of a last-gasp goal against Ryman Premier League side Lowestoft Town in the FA Trophy. Supermarine looked to have forced a replay with the scores locked at 1-1 until Dave Bampton’s mistake allowed Lowestoft to grab a 89th-minute winner.

Earlier, Ben Wells had cancelled out Lowestoft’s 20th-minute opener and in both halves Supermarine had good chances to win the game. The disappointment of crashing out at the third qualifying round surely won’t last long in Supermarine minds with the mouth watering prospect of playing League One Colchester in the FA Cup on Saturday.

However, Supermarine boss Collier claimed being beaten in the dying seconds of the match was ‘hard to take’ and although it would have hindered his preparations for the weekend, he would rather be facing a midweek replay. “It hurts,” said Collier. “I am disappointed to go out of a cup competition. Obviously we have been good in cup competitions this season and you want to go as far as you can in all of them. “To lose like that is hard to take. We’ve been used to being the ones to score late on but now it has happened to us. “From a manager’s point of view we wanted to stay in the competition and would have taken a replay in the week. “Obviously that would have made our preparation difficult for Colchester at the weekend but I would rather that. “Maybe if we are going to try and take some positives from the game then it could be a blessing in the disguise but it doesn’t make it any easier to lose it to be honest.”

Lowestoft came out attacking in both halves forcing Collier to use counter attacking tactics but the Supermarine boss still believes his side did enough to win. “We played okay. We had chances to win,” claimed Collier. “I thought we did enough to get something out of the game. “They are flying in their league and came out strong and they were obviously trying to win the game in 90 minutes. “Dave Bampton gave the ball away and they scored which is hard to take. “We have no divine right to win any match but we had a couple of good chances to score in the second half but we just didn’t make the right choices with the final ball. “We tried to hit them on the break but it just didn’t happen.” 

Collier said he will move on from the defeat immediately to focus on Saturday’s FA Cup clash. And he says he has already watched a video of Colchester and is looking forward to the biggest week in the club’s history. He added: “Now we have to bounce back and get up for the game on Saturday. I’m sure the lads will need no motivating for the Colchester game. “I’ve already watched the Town v Colchester game and we’ll be training as usual this week. The whole club is looking forward to it.” 

Chris Allen (shin) and Kyle Lapham both picked up slight knocks against Lowestoft but are expected to recover in time for the trip to Colchester.

 

Match Report from a Lowestoft perspective (to follow)