Five penalties in 'bizarre 90 minutes of football' for Southam United

Southam United’s poor run of form continued as they conceded three penalties in an error-strewn match to go down 4-2 at Charlton United in their Oxfordshire Senior League encounter, writes David Hucker.

Charlton got off to a good start with Callum Cooper scoring from a corner early on and then doubled their advantage from a Brad Wyatt penalty to lead 2-0 at half time.

A second penalty saw Wyatt make no mistake to increase the home side’s advantage, but Saints did pull one back when Simon Barby converted the third penalty of the match.

It didn’t end there, however, as Charlton were awarded another penalty when Wyatt was brought down by goalkeeper Lewis Hudson and, this time, it was Adam Blaylock who punished Saints for 4-1.

Incredibly, there was to be a fifth penalty which Barby put away to bring the score back to 4-2 and there it stayed as Saints suffered their fourth league defeat of the season, slipping to sixth place in the table.

“Another absolutely bizarre 90 minutes of football” said manager Richard Kay.

“We have completely dominated in terms of playing all the football, some of which was excellent, playing some great stuff and passing the ball on a really poor, heavy pitch as well as in any game this season.

“It’s another game I came away from totally lost for words as the goals we conceded were again a calamity,” said Kay.

“It’s nothing to do with set-up or tactics, but poor individual mistakes and decision making.

“You can afford mistakes every now and then, but it’s every week and has left our season and promotion aspirations on a knife edge.”

Southam are in league action again on Saturday when they visit Yarnton FC, kick- off at 2pm.