6 goal thriller

The Plain Ham crowd were treated to a new year spectacle of six goals and some pulsating football in the first game of 2018 for the Larks.

The home side had the upper hand for most of the first period, scoring first through prolific Joe Tumelty, whose close range goal on 16 minutes was supplied by centre-forward Greg Peel.

The Larks doubled the lead only a few minutes later when Cory Simpson went on a superb solo run from midfield and fired past the oncoming Josh Hill in the Marine goal. As the Larks dominated play our top scorer nearly got a second following good work from Greg and Cory.

The visitors then almost got one back only to be denied by a point-blank save from Shaun Semmens, but they managed to score shortly thereafter when they exploited the pace of their wingers to defeat the Larks' defence shortly before the break through Joe Selman.

The goals continued to come in the second period as two sides managed to play some fine passing football on a heavy pitch. Cory had a good chance with a shot-cum-cross that no one got on the end of, then Marine levelled when under pressure in the area defender Mike Baker put the goal in his own net. The visitors took the lead as Selman got a brace with less than ten minutes to play.

Just when it looked like all three points were heading to Wiltshire, Hill made a terrible error, coming out and exposing his open goal to winger Alex Lambert who needed no more encouragement and walked the ball into the net.