With morning snow, afternoon blizzards and heavy rain throughout the day and first half, the Chasetown ground staff need to be commended for the pitch being playable in the first place. Secondly, the team of match officials and referee Mr Howson in particular gave the game every chance to go ahead and complete, despite the odd occasion where the ball did slow considerably on wet and muddier areas of the playing surface, writes Paul Mullins.

Chasetown’s lowest league attendance of the season did see a cracking game of football given the strong winds and rain of the first half with The Scholars deserving winners against a Romulus side struggling near the base of the league table.

It was the visitors that took the lead in the 16th minute. Tyron Amory, who was a late replacement for the originally named Number 9 Graham Deakin, found himself some space and zipped a low shot across the greasy surface inside Matt Sargeant’s post.

Chasetown were backed by a strong wind and were struggling to keep their passing precise but drew level just after the half hour. Theo Robinson drove into the penalty area and his low shot beat Lewis Exall to his right – Robinson’s fifth league goal of the campaign, in just ten league starts.

A neat back heel from Joel Purkiss set up Nick Wellecomme who was denied by a brilliant diving save from Exall, with the first half ending with a long range effort from Rom’s Luke Keen which Matt Sargeant did well to keep out and hold on to a slippery ball.

Chasetown’s Tesfa Robinson went off injured at half time, replaced by Mark Branch and barely had the second half got under way that Chasetown took the lead. Less than 30 seconds of the second half had elapsed when Purkiss, who was harshly sent off at the weekend after a bright debut, marked his home debut with a thunderous twenty yard effort which left Exall grasping at thin air.

Purkiss was lively throughout and tested Exall with another shot after the end of a surging run forward.

Wellecomme and Purkiss then combined with a chipped cross from the Chasetown number 9 which Purkiss stretched to try and keep his header down, but only managed to clear the crossbar from close range.

The home side extended their lead just over a minute after Jono Gould came on as substitute for the impressive Purkiss. Gould cut into the penalty area from the left hand side and drove a fierce shot inside the keeper’s left hand post for his first senior goal for the Scholars.
Simon Brown flashed a chance just wide of the upright as Chasetown tried to see the game out.

The visitors had other ideas however and reduced the arrears 8 minutes from the end when Liam Francis netted.

Chasetown: Sargeant, Farmer, Tesfa Robinson (Branch, HT), Slater, Bate, Teesdale, Brown, Westwood, Wellecomme, Purkiss (Butler, 65 mins), Theo Robinson (Gould, 74 mins)

Other subs: Ashton, Clarke-O’Connell (not used)