Baffins Milton Rovers 1 AFC Stoneham 3

Baffins Milton Rovers vs AFC Stoneham match report:

It was a return to league action for Stoneham as they came away from the PMC stadium with a 3-1 win against Baffins Milton Rovers.

Two goals from Tyrell Sampson and one from Jim Orvis secured the win. Stoneham started fast in the game with a long ball up to Duarte Martins that he laid off for Owen Fee, before he saw the ball ricochet back to Martins who drilled his shot over the bar.

This was followed a minute later with another flurry of chances as Owen Fee played a good ball out to Tyrell Sampson who laid the ball off for Mat Bainbridge who was only able to shoot straight at the goalkeeper before Tyrell Sampson’s follow up shot was blocked. Lewis Nagle will be rueing a missed chance on 24 minutes after some good interplay from Duarte Martins which left him bearing down on the goalkeeper however his dinked chip went wide of the goal.

As the first half continued, chances were at a premium with Stoneham’s next best chance coming on the 36 minute mark with a Tyrell Sampson shot that rolled comfortably into the goalkeepers hands.

Even when fighting against the sloped pitch, Stoneham were the first to threaten in the second half. Tyrell Sampson was able to cut inside and draw a save from the goalkeepers feet before a Lewis Nagle longshot was turned behind for a corner that came to nothing. The purps were pegged back however much to their annoyance as Kelvin Robinson was able to lob the goalkeeper on the half volley with a goal that was potentially offside.

Tyrell Sampson was once again in the action following the goal, however his snapshot was saved again by the goalkeeper, before Roux Hardcastle denied him from a shot from point blank range after a lofted free kick.

Twenty minutes into the second half, Tyrell Sampson finally got his goal, cutting inside and bending into the bottom right corner for the equaliser. Sampson scored the winner late on as an effort from a free kick was diverted back before Tyrell converted.

Jim Orvis was able to tap home late on to make the win a comfortable one.

Post match interview with manager James Phillips.

So James, did you feel you had to graft for that win today?

James: Hundred per cent, yes. More so probably. It is a really difficult pitch, don’t get me wrong, it is decent for this time of year and looks good, but it is soft underfoot. It obviously takes a lot to run on, to turn on, that sort of stuff so our physical output was through the roof again today.

Obviously the pitch is sloped, how do you feel that impacts the game and was it pleasing to score the goals on the uphill?

James: You obviously haven’t been to Horndean as it is a lot worse down at their place! But this is a slight gradient in comparison. But I am really plased. I thought that we were excellent in the first half, really, really good. We had four or five chances and didn’t take them unfortunately. I said to the boys at half time that we needed to take one, because they are always a threat. They play a certain way, they have got two bodies up front that compete for everything and I warned them that if they get in behind us, they will score. Unfortunately that is what they did which made our task even harder but we got three goals and turned it around so I cant complain.

The world of refereeing decisions is a fun one to get into, and in terms of their goal it didn’t impact the result but did you feel there was a slight hint of offside with that one?

A slight hint of offside is probably an understatement, He has told us Millsy has played him onside but Millsy was probably our highest defender out of all of them so I don’t what he saw there! Whether it was offside or not I don’t know, I will have to watch it back, and it obviously fuels the fire a bit more, but these boys don’t need any more motivation, they know what they have to do.

Baffins have been able to adapt after the loss of Brett Pitman and stay in a similar league position, how well do you feel they have adapted without Brett?

Yes, really well. I get on really well with Danny. We had a good chat before the game, we discussed how he has changed the team. They are a bit younger now, got some youngsters in, a coupe of loans I believe. We were talking before the game, the team spirit he has got here now is what they need you know. Sometimes, you have a star player who gets you goals and brings you quality, but I think you have seen today, they are a bit more united than they possibly were when we first played them. We knew we had to be right at it to get a result today and they pushed us all the way.

It is another quick turnaround, another Tuesday, thoughts ahead of that?

It is another quick turnaround. Difficult pitch, heavy pitch, byt I keep saying to the boys the depth in the squad is phenomenal at the moment so we will use that and go again and that is what we will need til the end of the season.