THE BULLETIN

15th February 2020
Number 29

Midweek Action

Street forward Leighton Thomas was the standout performer on a busy Tuesday evening, scoring a hat trick during his side’s 4-0 victory over Clevedon in the Premier Division. Thomas is in excellent goalscoring form of late, and after scoring twice in the first half, he struck again at the end of the game to complete a one-sided victory for the Cobblers.

In the First Division, Ashton & Backwell claimed a dramatic late winner in their top-five clash away at Longwell Green Sports. The visitor’s went ahead at Shellards Road through Calum Townsend, who fired home from the spot after 16 minutes. Longwell Green then grabbed an equaliser, before both sides were reduced to ten men following different incidents at the beginning of the second half. With the game moving into stoppage time, Ashton put themselves firmly in the promotion race, with George Jones finding the back of the net to extend their unbeaten run to ten matches. Wincanton Town also picked up three points on Tuesday, with a 5-2 victory at home to Corsham helping them arrest a two-game losing streak. The home side were rampant during the first half, and found themselves three goals to the good thanks to efforts from Dan Wise, Gary Chapman and Connor Williams. Corsham pulled a goal back just before the interval through Ben Wickens, and then in the opening minute of the second half, Ash Alchin fired home to reduce the deficit to just one as they eyed a famous comeback. Wincanton finally put the game to bed midway through the second half when Toby Cole and Williams struck in quick succession to register their 11th league victory this term.

There was also a trio of quarterfinals in the Gloucestershire FA Challenge Trophy that night, with plenty of Western League sides in action. One of these teams were Lebeq United, and they enjoyed late success away at Cribbs Reserves, with a last-minute winner seeing them qualify for the semi-final round. The Bristol-outfit will be joined by Oldland Abbotonians who struck twice in the closing stages to register an impressive 3-1 victory away at Hallen. The home side have been in stellar league form, but required a beautiful free kick from Ben Willshire to grab a share of the half-time spoils after an own-goal had handed the Abbots a 36th minute lead. With ten minutes left on the clock, Joe Beardwell was upended in the Hallen box at the end of a surging run, and he dusted himself down before applying a strong finish from the penalty spot to restore Oldland’s lead. In stoppage time, Hallen sent their keeper up for a late corner, but the ball broke clear for Owen McCallum who slipped the ball into an empty net from outside the area to complete the win. In the other tie, Bitton followed up their victory in the FA Vase with another 2-1 triumph, this time at home to Wick thanks to goals from Karim Rendall and Oaklan Buck. A late red card to keeper Rob Brown was followed soon after by an injury-time goal for the visitors, but Bitton held out with ten men to reach the semi-final stage. 24 hours later, Roman Glass St George completed a clean sweep for Western League sides, beating Gala Wilton on 5-3 on penalties after the match finished 1-1 at the end of 90 minutes. The Glass will take on Oldland in the last four next month, with Bitton hosting Lebeq in the other semi-final.

Hengrove Athletic created a little bit of history in the Somerset Premier Cup on Tuesday. Having had a tough 2019, Hengrove have enjoyed a much better run of results to start the new decade and that continued in their resounding quarterfinal victory over Cheddar. Youngster Jack Jones struck all three of the Grove’s goals during their 3-0 win to book their spot in the final four for the first time in the club’s history.

It was a big night in the Premier Division on Wednesday, with four of the top six in action. The big clash at the top had late drama, with Bradford nicking all three points at home to Shepton Mallet thanks to an 88th minute winner. The game lived up to the hype in the opening stages, with Tyson Pollard heading Bradford in front, before Aaron Seviour equalised a couple of moments later to make it 1-1 inside ten minutes. Attempts on goal dried up a little bit after that, but then with just two minutes left on the clock, Charlie Maddison unleashed a rasping drive which nestled in the back of the net to secure a crucial victory for the league leaders. The remaining matches that night saw a pair of one-sided wins for a duo of promotion-chasing Devon sides. At Springfield, Tavistock put seven past Cadbury Heath in a resounding victory, with leading scorer Jack Crago notching another brace. Liam Prynn was also on target in either half, with further goals from the visitors coming from Callum Watson, Tallan Burns and Warren Daw. Exmouth Town joined Tavistock in reaching the 50-point mark following their 5-0 triumph at home to Cribbs. The game was as good as over after half an hour, with Jamie Dirrane and Max Gillard joining the in-form Jordan Harris on the scoresheet. Exmouth went into the fixture on the back of a four-match winless run, but that was well and truly forgotten, with Harris on target twice more during the second half to complete his hat-trick at the King George V Ground.

Weekend Action

Only one game managed to beat Storm Dennis on Saturday afternoon, but it certainly didn’t lack for drama with Keynsham and Bitton each scoring late on during their 1-1 draw. With 235 hardy souls battling the conditions, they certainly saw a terrific finish to the game at the Crown Fields, where Bitton believed they had taken all three points following a lovely finish from outside the box by Matt Groves five minutes from time. Keynsham weren’t to be denied however, and they grabbed a draw in stoppage time when Mike Grist headed home a corner.

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