With the 3-1 defeat by Sholing still prevalent in the minds of the Tiverton Town squad we were all hoping the 3 hour trip down to the South Coast would be a worthwhile one. And any Yellows fans in attendance would be able to easily note the massive differences in attitude and mentalility in the lads from one weekend to the next.
And it was this different-minded Tiverton team that had the first opportunity in the third minute, after a lovely spell of liquid football, Olaf Koszela found himself in some nice space and got the shot off which the keeper easily saved.
However Gosport was going into the day 2nd in the table and wasn't going to allow themselves to get downed in the first twenty, in the sixth minute Tivvy Fullback Joe Belsten caught in possession which allowed Gosport number 19, Rory Williams, get in behind and put a cross in, thankfully stalwart defender Woody was there to turn it behind for a corner. The resulting corner was easily cleared by the Tiverton defenders.
The next chance fell to our favourite on-loan Torquay striker, Olaf Koszela in the 8th minute; we had a free-kick around the halfway line after Matt Wright was fouled by Rory Williams. The free-kick was floated in by Dan Hayfield and floated straight to the Pole in the middle and his resulting shot was a ruler's length away from putting Tiverton one-nil up. Gosport kept going on despite the run of play. With a shot from their striker being flagged for offside. However the boot of the striker didn't just go through the ball, it also went straight through Lewis Williams' head, with the goalkeeper needing to receive treatment from physio Riggsy. Aaron Dawson clearly felt that the striker should've been awarded at least a yellow card for his actions as Dawson proceeded to have some handbags with someone who he was teammates with during his spell at Gosport.
One player who Gosport couldn't keep quiet all afternoon was Nelson Iseguan, the young winger on loan from Exeter City who was causing trouble all over the pitch for the Gosport players. And on the 20th minute once again he had broken through with some Cristiano-Esque dribbling taking it past 3 defenders. All he had to do was slot it in the corner rather than blast it at the keeper and it would've been one-nil tivvy. And it was the play again from Nelson which led to Tivvy's opener in the 27th minute. Some fantastic dribbling from the young winger allowed him to put Matt Wright in some space on the byline. Matt proceeded to take it round the keeper and put his laces straight through the ball to send it into the roof of the net. Finally, Tiverton had the lead they had so sorely deserved in this game so far.
In the next 5 minutes, we should've, would've, and could've been three-nil up. The next big opportunity came on the 33rd with Olaf finding himself out wide and pulling one back to Nelson who tried his luck the first time despite having no defenders around him, which resulted in the ball entering orbit. And on 35th minute Louis Morison tried his luck from 25 yards, the resulting block from the defender led to Joe Belsten having the ball on the edge of the box and his shot ended up being inches wide of the goalpost. Gosport wasn't down and out for the count though and on the 44th they had a counter-attack, their attacker was nearly clean through on goal when Austen Booth decided he had to do what was necessary and brought him down just outside the box.
You could definitely say this was a game of 2 halves as Gosport, who looked out of sorts in the first 45 minutes came out of the doors swinging for the next 45 ahead. Tivvy nearly conceded the equaliser in the 51st minute after Gosport winger Joe Lea took the ball around Sweeper 'Keeper Lewis, after his attempts to clear the ball, but fortunately, he only managed to find the side netting. Gosport wouldn't have to wait much longer for their equaliser, after some lovely play from Theo Widdrington; like his brother Kai from strictly he danced his way through the Tivvy defence, nutmegging a defender before blasting it into the top corner.
Tivvy's luck would only worsen, as 20 minutes later the ref gave Gosport a, rather lucky, penalty. Joe Lea was through on goal and Lewis went to claim the ball, both players went down and the Ref was very eager to point straight to the spot. Widdrington stepped up to take. And Widdrington cha-cha'd his way to his second of the day after slotting the penalty to Lewis' left. Scott seemed to be very unhappy with the decision and received a Yellow for dissent. And the misery kept coming in the later stages of the game with the hosts adding a third goal on eighty-seven minutes when Dan Wooden met a cross down the left, controlling and firing a shot into the bottom right to make it 3-1 with just moments remaining.
One silver lining from todays fixture was seeing Theo Simpsons long awaited first goal in a Yellow shirt, just seven minutes after he came on. Some quick passing led to the ball being at the feet of Simpson who turned and produced a shot that was sweet as a nut from twenty yards out! And Tiverton's deserved equaliser nearly came just moments later with a goalmouth scramble leading to Kyle Egan's shot being blocked on the line by Olaf Koszela. But in the end Gosport hung on for their 3 points.