League Two: We Hate Ben 0-3 Premiership Pornstars

We Hate Ben were again defeated despite some better passages of play and chances throughout a game littered with heavy-handed tactics from their opponents. A second defeat on the bounce mean WHB stretch their winless run to three games going into the final league match of the season.

In this rearranged, then thirty minutes delayed match, the SoccerJoos had been decimated by injuries going into it with leading scored James Peate and defender Cei Whitehouse the latest players to be ruled out with a hamstring strain and leg problem respectively. This saw Dave Turvill make his first start for the club as a lone front man, while captain Richie Shore also came back into the side as WHB lined up 4-5-1.

The volume of players in the middle seemed to limit chances somewhat in the first half, with only a handful of openings. Defender Chris Webster had to be withdrawn early on with a back problem and was replaced by Adam Roberts. Webster had been struggling and the problem caused some opportunities for Pornstars. These chances were not taken, and WHB had some of their own. Disaster struck however when David Norbury was replaced after having his hand kicked by a high foot. The player was taken to hospital and scans revealed that he had fractured his wrist, ruling him out for the season - the third season ending injury this year. After beign replaced by Danny Shaw, which saw Richie Shore moved back into defence, Pornstars continued with aggressive tactics and saw several two-footed challenges made on players, with a particularly bad one made on Adam Edgerley. The referee however deemed these tackles fair despite the protests of several WHB players, and in hindsight it was lucky that no one was seriously injured in the game. Edgerley had an opportunity when he broke through on goal but saw his lobbed effort fall straight at the goalkeeper. The first-half came to a close with Dave Turvill having to come off and replaced by Matt Sermon.

The second-half continued in a similar vein to the first, with few chances either end. The make-shift defence battled well but Hywel Williams struggling to make an impression up front on his own, often battling four defenders. He did manage to break on occasion, seeing one or two efforts saved. Edge also managed to drag one across goal with a snap-shot. WHB then conceded a goal around the hour mark which could be blamed on poor officiating. WHB believed they had won a throw-in on the left and stopped, the referee failed to see this and decided and allowed play to continue after delaying the decision with both teams having stopped. A Pornstars player then hit the ball long into the box which Nathan Leach half-heartedly tried to catch believing it was a throw-in, leaving the ball to fall to a unmarked forward to tapped in from close-range. To make matters worse, the player also seemed to have been offside once play resumed. A second goal was conceded not long after when the ball was lost in the Pornstars half, after what seemed to be another two-footed lunge on a WHB player, and broke before a shot was hit from twenty-five yards which managed to dip just enough to go over Leach and end up in the net. Hywel Williams was awarded a free-kick with which he narrowly missed the target from a similar distance. A change to 4-4-2 was made with Ross Pope moving forward to join the attack and Stuart Fleming replaced Danny Shaw. A third and final goal was conceded with only five minutes left when a corner was not cleared and put away to finish the game. A decent performance from WHB which could have seen a draw if only for some poor officiating.

Manager James Naik made these comments after the final whistle: "Another solid display for a long period of the game before falling to a couple of goals towards the end. I am disappointed with the third goal as it flattered them greatly, and I felt they didn't deserve that after some of the atrocious challenges they made today. I saw our player make one bad tackle and he conceded a free-kick which was rightly so, but they must have made about five or six terrible challenges for which I think we were awarded one free-kick. I'm surprised someone else wasn't hurt to add to our current injury woes. To lose Norbury is a massive blow and for his hand to get fractured their player must have gone in high and the referee hasn;t seen it. I felt the standard of refereeing was appalling in parts not seen for a while now and it held us back. We now have half our squad carrying injuries and we're struggling to put out a side for our next match. To end on a brighter note I would like to point out that I thought our defence was fantastic today, and our midfield and lone striker did work extremely hard. I just hope everyone is fit for our final game and the play-off matches."

Team (4-5-1, 4-4-2)

Leach - J. Thomas, Webster, Norbury, L'argent - Pope, M. Davies, Edgerley, Shore, Williams - Turvill.

Subs: (used) Roberts, Shaw, Sermon (unused) None.

Goals: None.

Man of the match: L'argent.