A Met Police penalty sets back Swindon Supermarine's play-off push

Swindon Supermarine took on the Metropolitan Police in London on Tuesday evening as they tried to keep up their play off push at the top of the Southern League table.

Manager Lee Spalding was forced into a change between the sticks after Josh Gould was ruled out for a short period with a hip injury. Gloucester City loanee Liam Armstrong returned having just recovered from an injury sustained 3 months ago playing for Marine. Meanwhile Will Tunnicliff returned after a month off allowing Ryan Campbell to move forward with George Cowmeadow dropping out of the squad.

Supermarine made a strong start to proceedings with Jamie Edge dragging a strike wide of goal early doors. But it was an even affair overall with little to split the two sides and defences doing enough to block any clear cut openings.

Swindon however had a strong spell late in the second half. A great free kick from Joe Tumelty swung in but captain Mat Liddiard just couldn’t quite connect at the back stick on 27 minutes.

An excellent ball in from Tumelty on the half hour looked destined to be netted by Ty Duffus but a defender just got a foot in to deny him the goal.

And then a third excellent ball in, this time from Henry Spalding, was just too strong for Ryan Campbell to connect. All three great chances within fractions of seeing a goal, it was turning into a frustrating evening for the visitors.

And then following this excellent run of pressure the Met broke on the break and seized their chance. A ball into the channel split the defence and Liam Armstrong was forced to leave the goal-line and in the process clattered into a Met attacker and the ref pointed to the spot.

Taylor-Crossdale stepped up and sent Armstrong the wrong way to give the hosts a lead against the run of play on 42 minutes.

The second period never reached the brief highs of the first period as the Met were determined not to let their lead slip to deny any Swindon attacks.

On the break however the Met had some chances with Keeya hitting wide on 57 minutes and the only other shot on target just after the hour when Alves had an effort well saved by Armstrong flying across goal to save.

Manager Spalding threw on Dowling and Guinan to try and find a way through (Tumelty and Tunnicliff coming off) but despite strong pressure and Swindon throwing the kitchen sink at the game late on there was no way through. The closest chance being when James Harding beat his man to put the ball across only to see a dubious offside flag raised.

A frustrating evening where a draw would have been a fairer result but certainly not the worst performance from Marine. They move on hoping to learn from the evening with a key clash at Hanwell Town up next on Saturday with a three points needed to keep up the push at the top. As Alex Ferguson said “Squeaky Bum Time” is on the way.

Man of the match – Mat Liddiard – a solid presence at the back.