Chard Town 0-1 Almondsbury

Missed chances cost Chard in last home game of the season

It was a disappointing result for Chard 1st team in their last home match of the season. Almondsbury scored a solitary goal early in the 2nd half but this game will live long in the memory for the “goal that wasn’t”.

With Chard shooting into the low sun in the first half, they struggled to get to grips with Almondsbury's movement for the first 25 minutes but dominated the half thereafter. Despite this, 10 minutes in, James Boyland was through with his shot rebounding off the ‘keeper with a further effort going away, Kieran Bailey had a header cleared off the line from corner for the hosts and Ben-Salem was inches wide with a header. A free kick for Almondsbury was saved adjacent the near post by Jon Hill to keep the scores level at the other end. It was late in the half when Chard looked to have gone ahead. Bailey, Ben-Salem and Ryan Parris were all involved in a goal mouth scramble from another dangerous corner. The latter appeared to have the ball over the line with the defender behind the line only able to lift the ball up into the top of the net but in the confusion and mass of bodies both referee and linesman did not award the goal.

With this reprieve Almondsbury came out for the second half and immediately scored on 50 minutes, after a dominant first five minutes to the half. Their captain Ashley Knight, who controlled their midfield throughout the game with some accurate passes, provided a well-judged one-two for Alex Bisp to shoot first time and score. Chard then had most of the attacking play with a number of scoring chances – a cross by Boyland on 65 minutes saw Ben-Salem misjudge his shot when in a great position together with a Matt Howell effort on target direct to the ‘keeper who pushed the ball away for a corner. A final chance saw Pat Golden's free kick awarded just outside the penalty box crash against the visitor’s cross bar for them to go away with the three points