Keynsham backed to maintain form

KEYNSHAM Town secretary Jules French is backing his team to maintain the sort of form that has put them in amongst the top-runners of the Toolstation Premier Division table.

The AJN Stadium outfit moved to ten points from five games after drawing 2-2 at undefeated Buckland Athletic on Saturday.

Despite stumbling at the first hurdle of the FA Cup courtesy of a 3-0 away defeat by Tring Athletic in Hertfordshire a fortnight back, John Allen’s Keynsham won all three of their opening Prem fixtures before taking a 3-2 home tumble at the hands of the league’s Cornish newbies, Helston Athletic.

Nonetheless, Town hit the road tomorrow brimming with belief, spurred much by the form so far of three summer acquisitions in their encouraged club secretary’s estimation.

Reflecting on that defeat, French reasoned: “Of course, losing on Saturday was disappointing, not least because we’d managed to get it back to 2-2 soon into the second half having been fortunate to only find ourselves 2-1 down at halftime to a much better Helston side up until then.

“Unfortunately, with us now in the ascendancy, we gave away a sloppy goal three minutes from time for our first defeat.

“We’d scored two worldy goals too to twice equalise, both from our new signings from Odd Down and Paulton Rovers respectively. Sam Jones, on his first start for us, scored with a fantastic volley and then Will Hailston, a very experienced Southern League footballer, made it 2-2 with a cracking 25-yarder into the top corner.

“It was Will’s sixth goal in five games for us, making him the leading scorer in the entire Western League at that point.”

Allen has also introduced “highly-rated” 18-year-old keeper Seth Locke to his ranks on loan from Frome Town to replace Ash Clark, an influential member of Town’s Division One title and promotion-winning side of 2018-19.

“Ash informed us that following the birth of his fourth child he could no longer commit to regular football,” French explained,” although he’ll cover when required for Seth, who has himself impressed everyone with his commanding and vocal presence at such a young age.

“All in all we’ve been absolutely delighted with the start we’ve made; and some of our football, especially in the first half of our 3-0 win at Brislington, has been superb.

“Our priorities since I joined the club nine years ago have always been to progress; and now we’re well underway in what hopefully will be our first complete season in the Premier Division, we’re looking to establish ourselves in the top half of the division and build from there.”

On Saturday, a Ryan Bush goal after 17 minutes had set the Buckland on their way in the early stages, before efforts from Will Hailston and Nat Brown turned the game in the visitors’ favour. The ever-reliable Richard Groves curled the ball home to grab a share of the spoils, with the Buckland skipper helping maintain their unbeaten start.

On Tuesday, Keynsham took a two goal lead against Shepton Mallet through Matthew Brown and Jack Dancey before being pegged back in a 2-2 draw.

■ Elsewhere, for Bitton, it was a very comfortable 90 minutes on Saturday, with the new league leaders scoring four times in either half on their way to an 8-1 win over Bridport.

The trio of Ash Kington, Joe Mclennan and Sean Keet all scored in both halves to complete goalscoring doubles, with a curled finish from Ben Withey and a Dean Griffiths effort rounding out the scoring. That came after a 2-1 victory last Wednesday at Clevedon Town with Joseph Mclennan grabbing both Bitton goals.

That was followed up by a Dean Griffiths double on Tuesday as they came from a goal down to beat Street 2-1.

In Division One, Odd Down are another side who have enjoyed early-season success and they defeated Oldland 2-0 in Bath despite losing the influential Luke Bryan early in the first half. The away side had issues themselves, and were reduced to ten men after just 23 minutes, with Odd Down taking advantage following first half goals from Reeko Best and Jack Metcalf.

■ FA CUP An under-strength Corsham Town were knocked out of the FA Cup on Saturday against Combined Counties Premier League Southern Division side Fleet Town. Corsham had actually taken the lead through Luke Ballinger but found themselves 2-1 at half-time. Despite having the better chances to get back into the game, Corsham fell to a 5-1 defeat with two goals in the final ten minutes.

Bradford Town have also been knocked out of the FA Cup after falling to a 3-0 defeat at Wessex League Premier Division Alton in a reply on Tuesday night

The replay came following a 1-1 draw on Saturday at Bradford. George Box had given the Bobcats the lead at half-time before Alton managed to equalise in the second half.

Bradford had to finish the game with ten men when Luke Burman earned two yellow cards in the space of five minutes but keeper Jonny Hill kept Bradford in the tie.

■ HELLENIC LEAGUE Corsham Town continued their unbeaten start to the season with a single goal victory over Lydney Town on Tuesday night.

Gary Higdon headed from a Chris Allen corner to put Corsham ahead just before the break.

Lydney’s challenge was made harder when they fell to ten men for a kick on Brandon Murphy and Corsham held on to the three points with a battling performance.

■ WILTSHIRE LEAGUE Corsham Town Development showed no signs of suffering any hoodoo after their opening defeat of the campaign with two wins in a week. Adam Shipman, Adam Mitchell, Benjamin Wickens and Jake Dodge were all on the scoresheet last Wednesday in a 4-1 victory at Melksham Town Reserves.

That was followed up by putting six past Purton on Saturday. This time, Wickens grabbed a hat-trick alongside a goal for Connor Morpurgo and a brace from substitute Tyler Smith in their 6-1 victory.

Odd Down Reserves have five points from three games to remain unbeaten so far. Marley Carpenter had given Odd Down the lead after 25 minutes against Frome Collegians last Wednesday but had to settle for a point when Barry Sandquest equalised with ten minutes to go.

At Ludgershall Sports on Saturday, Odd Down ran out 2-0 winners after Daniel Taylor broke the deadlock on ten minutes into the second half before Miles Imrie ensured the points with nine minutes remaining.

■ SOMERSET LEAGUE Harry Green had given Fry Club the lead against Chard Town in the Premier Division before they fell to a 2-1 defeat, their first of the campaign. Fry were then beaten 3-1 at Mendip Broadwalk on Tuesday.

Keynsham Town Reserves are still searching for their first win of the season after losing 3-1 to Clevedon United, Luke Banfield scoring for Keynsham. They were then beaten 3-0 at Clutton on Tuesday.

Peasedown Miners Welfare were beaten 2-0 at home to Hutton in Division Two. A double from Corey Rawlings and a goal for Bertie Haines saw them to a 3-0 win at home to Ashcott on Tuesday.

Tunley Athletic recovered from their 6-0 thrashing against Cam Valley last Wednesday with a 2-1 win at the weekend over Congresbury courtesy of goals from Steven Hussey and Martin Lewis.

■ WOMEN’S FOOTBALL Keynsham Town Ladies suffered a 5-1 defeat at London Bees as they were unable to follow up their opening day victory in the Southern Premier.