Leaders Show Their Edge as Parkway Punished in the Rain
Parkway v Walton & Hersham | Match ReportBy Mike Parrish
There are evenings when the table feels distant and others when it stands right in front of you. Under driving rain at Bolitho Park, the gap between top and bottom was evident.
 Plymouth ParkwayWalton & Hersham FC 
0 - 4Full Time |
Full Match Report
Parkway came into the contest knowing the scale of the task. League leaders in town. Floodlights on. A chance to respond. And for long stretches of the first half, they did more than simply compete.
Chris McPhee handed a debut to on-loan goalkeeper Frankie Phillips, signed earlier in the day, while Mikey Williams returned to the starting side. Gunnar Franke was unavailable and Jenson Ireland began on the bench alongside Taylor Scarff.
The rain had already begun to fall heavily by kick-off, the pitch slick and quick beneath it. Parkway tried to use that early zip to their advantage. Rocky Neal thought he was through on goal after a precise Ryan Brett pass split the visiting defence, only for the assistant’s flag to intervene. Minutes later Neal returned the favour, sliding Brett in from the right, but his close-range effort was beaten away by Barker in the Walton goal.
The early tempo belonged to Parkway. Rio and Carlo Garside pressed aggressively, denying space in midfield, and James Watts-Barciela was in defiant mood, gliding beyond three challenges and drawing a booking from Aaron Fernandez.
But leaders do not panic.
Gradually Walton began to control possession, Mason Obeng increasingly influential between the lines. A booking for Shane White halted one attack but also forced disruption, with Jack Wood unable to continue and Kaise Odasie introduced earlier than planned.
The breakthrough, when it came on 24 minutes, carried the precision of a side used to deciding matches. A swift passing sequence sliced through Parkway’s midfield, releasing Obeng clean through. His finish was composed, low beyond Phillips, and suddenly the visitors had their foothold.
Parkway remained in it. They pressed, probed, and looked the more urgent side, but Walton were comfortable retreating into shape and striking on transition. Rogalski struck the post from eight yards after Obeng’s surging run created space, and moments later Obeng himself flashed wide after another intelligent movement off the ball.
The half ended with Parkway trailing but not overrun. Frustrated, certainly. Outclassed, not yet.
The rain intensified after the interval, the surface now unpredictable. Kicking towards the clubhouse end, Parkway began brightly. Watts-Barciela tested Barker with a driven effort, then Callum Hall forced another sharp save after finding space inside the area. There was belief in the stands that a leveller would shift the mood entirely.
Instead, the game tilted decisively.
Rogalski’s tireless work up front gave Walton an outlet when pressure built, and from one such phase the ball broke loose inside the area. Riley Hovan reacted quickest, turning home amid a scramble to double the lead. Before Parkway could regroup, they were hit again. Frances Amartey broke clear and finished confidently, a quickfire double that transformed a contest into a climb too steep.
At 3–0, the urgency became damage limitation. McPhee turned to his bench, reshaping and preserving legs with Saturday in mind, but Walton’s authority only grew. Obeng, a constant presence, ghosted into the box with twenty minutes remaining and finished calmly for his second of the evening and the visitors’ fourth.
The rain continued to pour. Some in the home support drifted away early, the night growing colder by the minute. Parkway, to their credit, continued to work. The running did not stop. It is tempting to wonder how the evening might have unfolded had Brett’s early chance found the net, or Rocky’s run been timed a fraction differently. Football often turns on moments. Walton took theirs.
For Parkway, this was a reminder of the standards required against the division’s best. The focus now shifts to the fixtures that will define their campaign, those against sides in and around them in the table, where points carry heavier consequence than nights like this.
Parkway Partners
