Sadly another lacklustre United performance saw Winchester City come to the SKYex and travel home all smiles with three points courtesy of a three goal salvo at the start of the second half that obliterated Sam Ashton’s strike just before the break. Skipper Sanmi Odelusi returned to the side which also contained new recruit Sean O’Brien as part of an attacking midfield trio behind lone striker Sam Ashton. A couple of openings in the first five minutes in monsoon like conditions both went the way of the visitors as Jacob Adams firstly had to push over a header from Simba Mlambo and a couple of minutes later he was needed again, this time to field a long range Trevor Caborn shot that was held comfortably. With the rain ceasing but thunder and lightning still buzzing around the stadium it was just after the half hour mark when the next effort on goal came and yet again it was for the visitors as Jamie Barron fired in a corner kick from the right to the far post, Mlambo climbed highest but headed wide of the target. United’s first effort on goal did not arrive until the 37th minute in part due to a great deal of misplaced passes along with some good defensive play from City. On this occasion Adam Liddle fed the ball inside to Omar Rowe who then play it to his right to Cole Brown who saw his first time shot from the edge of the box held by Winchester ‘keeper Charlie Philpott. The opener came in the third minute of added time and in all honesty was against the run of play as Sean O’Brien won the ball and moved to the right of the visitors box before firing in a low centre that Sam Ashton arrived onto and swept the ball past Philpott to put United ahead. Still in added time it almost went wrong for United as a cross from the right was allowed to drop to the feet of Daniel Jones six yards from goal, the visitors being denied an equaliser by a superbly timed block by Jerry Wiltshire and the half ended with United’s nose in front. The second half was to be a different story however, two changes for United at the break saw Jalloh and Liddle replaced by Steve Ngunga and Jamie Hanlon respectively it was however the visitors who came out all guns blazing and soon took full control of the game. It took them just six minutes to pull level, another Barron corner being played into the danger area allowing the towering figure of Jordan Rose to rise up and power a header past Adams in the United goal. Add on a further seven minutes and United had gone from a goal ahead to 3-1 behind. The visitors took the lead on 56 minutes as Mlambo collected the ball on the side of the box and crossed low creating a far post tap in for Conor Lynch. Just two minutes later they had a third as Mlambo raced through the United back line to slot the ball past the defenceless Adams in the United goal. Until the final ten minutes all United could muster in trying to recover from this deficit was a shot from Rowe that the visitors defence easily blocked to safety. With nine minutes remaining Steve Ngunga ran at the Winchester area only to be hauled down right on the edge, a free-kick was awarded but seemingly no card for the transgressor on this occasion. Rowe took charge of the free-kick but his dinked effort cleared the bar without causing Philpott any concern. Two minutes later a low Ngunga cross found Sanmi Odelusi but he fired wide at full stretch and then United’s horrid day was compounded in stoppage time as Cole Brown received his marching orders via a second yellow card and the game was ended soon after by the referee. This means United have now lost three league games on the bounce for the first time since November/December 2021 and things need to improve drastically if we are not to fall behind the leading pack where we are aiming to be.
Report by Kevin Watts. Print the Teamsheet: Here.