Nailsea & Tickenham reserves 2 Wrington Redhill 2

With the home team’s Fryth Way ground waterlogged and both teams keen to play, the game was moved to the 4g surface at Worle school. The opening 15 minutes was evenly contested with neither team creating any clear-cut chances but James Williams in goal for Wrington Redhill was probably the busier of the keepers comfortably dealing with some speculative crosses. The visitors were dealt an early blow on 15 minutes when Ethan Williams limped off injured but replacement Joe Creese offers a new threat wide on the right. Nailsea & Tickenham became to see more of the ball and Dan Ferguson and Whitey in the Wrington defence had to be on top of their game to keep their lively forwards under control. Nailsea & Tickenham took the lead when, on 25 minutes they broke up a Wrington attack, robbing the ball from Reece Ferguson-Obamwonyi, before passing it down the right wing to Matt Pilgrim who cut inside and slotted the ball into the far corner leaving goalkeeper Williams stranded. They could have gone further ahead 5 minutes later when Pilgrim slid the ball into the path of Mike Carrol who blazed over.

Wrington Redhill must have had a ‘talking to’ by Manager White and his coaches at half time because they started the 2nd half playing higher up the pitch and moving the ball more quickly. Parky and Reece were linking much better and Rory Thomas and Ryan Pugh were working well together down the left, but chances were still hard to come by and Nailsea & Tickenham were always threatening. The equaliser came on the hour when George Fake challenged in the air and the ball fell to Creese whose lightning run down the right wing left everyone standing. His cross was almost cut out, but the ball eventually rolled into the path of Thomas on his seldom used right foot. As everyone from Wrington held their breath he despatched his shot into the bottom corner!

With plenty of time remaining the game could have gone either way, but it was Nailsea who went back in front. A stray pass in the Wrington half was pounced on by Nailsea & Tickenham’s Josh Benjamin who jinked his way to the edge of the box opened his body and passed the ball into the bottom corner giving Williams no chance. At 2 – 1down with 20 minutes to go the visitors sprang into life, passing the ball quickly and accurately looking for the equaliser. Ryan Pugh went on a mazy run down the left before exchanging passes with Thomas and unleashing a swerving effort that crashed against the post with keeper Gillingham beaten. Soon after Ollie Clements rolled the ball into the path of Matt Walsh on the right and his shot was well saved by George Gillingham in goal for Nailsea. For some reason Gillingham then went over the top with his time wasting, firstly lying on the ground with the ball and then kneeling with it in his arms.  The time wasting was ‘pointed out’ to the referee by the Wrington bench but Gillingham continued his antics despite being encouraged to get on with it by the referee and both sets of players. This left the referee Mark Smith with no option but to award an indirect free kick.

With the whole Nailsea & Tickenham team on the line the free kick was touched by Whitey to George Fake who smashed a left foot shot high into the top corner for a well-deserved equaliser. The final 5 minutes were played out frantically as both sides tried to find a winner without success.

Team

Goalkeeper. James Williams.

Defence. Simon Hewish, Leigh White, Dan Ferguson, Ryan Pugh.

Midfield. Sam Parkinson, Ollie Clements, Reece Ferguson-Obamwonyi, Rory Thomas.

Strikers. George Fake, Ethan Williams.

Subs. Joe Creese (for Williams) Matt Walsh (for Hewish) Ethan Johnson for (Thomas)

Wrington Redhill man of the match Dan Ferguson