Three red cards and a sin bin as Christchurch win incident-filled match

Sydenhams Wessex Premier

Christchurch FC 3

Baffins Milton Rovers FC 0

CHRISTCHURCH recovered from a slow start to beat Baffins Milton Rovers 3-0 in an incident-filled match at Hurn Bridge on Tuesday.

Earlier in the week, the home side took part in a team-building visit to a boxing gym. This prepared them well for a highly-competitive, hard-fought goalless first-half. The match exploded into life after the break with three goals, one from Max Wilcock and a brace from Will Fletcher, and three red cards and a sin bin.

The second half looked destined to stay at 0-0 until Wilcock headed in the opener on 57 minutes. The goal rejuvenated Christchurch while the visitors’ heads dropped.

Not long after the goal, Baffins’ James Cowan was bizarrely sent off for swearing at his own teammate.

Then five minutes later, visiting manager Shaun Wilkinson was given his marching orders from the dugout for something he said to the linesman.

When the chaos died down, Will Fletcher replaced Kyle Graham who was taken to hospital with concussion. The change brought instant reward when Fletcher scored with his first touch within a minute.

The fun continued on 72 minutes when Christchurch's Brad Cherrett was sent off for diving in with studs showing. However, both players could have departed as the Baffins man looked to have gone in two-footed.

As the match wound to a close, the visitors were reduced to nine men when Josh Warren was sin-binned before Fletcher wrapped up the win with his second goal right on 90 minutes.

Christchurch: L. Gunstone-Grey, B. Cherrett, B. Hill, L. Ansell, H. Wright, N. Swann, L. Delaney, B. Satterley, K. Graham, M. Wilcock, A. Pope. Subs: J. Kirkham, W. Fletcher, E. Chameje, J. Satterley, J. Johnstone.