Sports and Social win only Sunday League game to survive downpour (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Sports and Social win only Sunday League game to survive downpour

2:00pm Thursday 21st March 2013 in Football By Tony Spencer

ONLY one Sunday match survived the trials and tribulations of all the weather in the Basingstoke and District League programme.

That was a Division One clash between North Warnborough and visiting Basingstoke Sports and Social.

In the previous two meetings in league and Kelvin Cup, reigning champions Warnborough had travelled to Castle Field, but won on both occasions.

However, this time around it was a different story as Sports and Social won 4-3 in a thriller.

The visitors got the game off to a good start from their perspective, with their star striker Alex Izzo drawing first blood, stabbing in the opening goal from 12 yards.

The game, which was keenly contested throughout, saw little leeway between the two sides, so it was no surprise that the home side levelled the match before half-time.

Early in the second-half, though, the champs soon went 3-1 up, making the most of two breakaway strikes.

Then both sides tired in the heavy going and it looked like Warnborough would beat their rivals for a third time. However, with 12 minutes left on the clock Sports and Social stormed back into the match with a 20-yard effort by Ellis Hauman, which reduced the arrears to a single goal and gave fresh heart to the visitors.

With only five minutes to go, the visitors were still a goal behind, but wizard Izzo buried two goals in those last five minutes to complete his hat-trick and snatch the points to give his side their first victory in four games.

The North Warnborough scorers were Russell O’Keefe, Andy Parker and Tom Davies.