Wrington Redhill reserves 2 Yatton & Cleeve Utd A 3

Having whittled down the host of available players to a squad of 16, Wrington Redhill reserves were confident of pulling away from the bottom half of the League on a perfect Spring day for football. Playing with the slope they started brightly as Tommy Johnson skipped clear and fed Jon Flynn whose shot was narrowly wide. Yatton responded and a long throw in found its way to Steve Owen who fired over. Matt Allen also tried his luck from distance with a clean strike but James Williams in the Wrington goal was right behind it and handled confidently. On his return after a long layoff, Louis Rouvais was a handful as he has always been and must be a nightmare to play against. Taking the ball in the channel he fed Johnson whose cross was cut out with Flynn again waiting for the tap in. However, from the resulting corner, Charlie Cressy’s perfect cross saw Tom Cleeves use his 6 foot ‘plenty’ to tower over everyone to put the home side in front. Again, Yatton & Cleeve responded and it needed a brave defensive header from Fin Taplin to avert the danger. The lively Flynn was having a good battle with Josh Fortune on the Wrington Redhill left wing and having drawn the foul, his inswinging free kick was flicked on by Holland only for Rouvais to head over from point blank range. Nick Tucker and Tom Cleeves looked very comfortable at the heart of the Wrington Redhill defence which meant Steve Owen tried to use his height by coming wide against their two young full backs but got absolutely no change out of Max Brean orFin Taplin who more than held their own. However, a wicked bobble saw Owen clean through on goal and it took a wonderful double save from Williams and another brave block from Taplin to keep him out. With Holland and Joe Moore sweeping up in midfield, Wrington maintained the pressure and Johnson again fired narrowly wide cutting in on his right foot. Max Brean again defended stoutly again Owen and as the ball broke to him he fired a perfect pass fully 50 yards right into Rouvais’ stride which allowed him to round the keeper and double Wrington Redhill’s lead.  Wrington could also have added to their score just on half time as Cleeves and Rouvais fed Flynn who headed narrowly wide. However, nobody thought Yatton were out of the game and certainly had the quality to respond.

 

Coach Burnett’s team talk included the need for game management and not letting Yatton & Cleeve back into the game but from the kick off, Yatton pushed Chris Howard further forward and with Rouvais inevitably tiring, Wrington were immediately under pressure. The substitution of Rouvais saw a reorganisation with Scudamore slotting in at Centre Back and Cleeves moved further forward but Yatton were now in control. A combination of near misses, hitting the post and bar plus a fine display of keeping by Williams in the Wringtongoal frustrated the visitors. It took a long ball which was allowed to bounce and travel all the way into the Wringtonarea, causing panic and inducing a missed sliding tackle and obvious penalty. Owens calmly slotted the penalty and quickly added a second although in fortunate circumstances as an innocuous Yatton pass hit the ref and Holland cleared. However, the ref awarded a drop ball. Several Wringtonplayers had moved forward presuming the drop ball was theirs which meant Owen was free to shoot past Williams and the scores were level.

Lucas Finnegan then came on as a Yatton substitute and was in the right place at the right time to fire home the winner to complete the turnaround and typical game of two halves.