Yate looking to build on remarkable win against Gosport Borough
YATE Town welcome a clutch of key players back to bolster their ranks as they bid to build on Saturday’s exciting victory over Gosport Borough with more of the same on the road tomorrow.
While local rivals Paulton Rovers and Bristol Manor Farm seek precious points of their own on the back of respective downturns in Division One South, Yate are in Surrey for a testing Premier South trip to take on Metropolitan Police with a view to hoisting themselves above the relegation red line and ultimately staying there.
That important and enthralling weekend success at the expense of fellow strugglers Gosport was just the ticket for the Bluebells and their supporters, after seemingly unstoppable leaders Westonsuper-Mare had inflicted a painful 4-0 defeat on them a few days prior.
Not that John Rendell’s men had it all their own way on Saturday, as the heartened manager’s trusty No 2 Paul Tovey accepted: “All our preparations heading into the Gosport game flew out of the window when we went behind after 20 seconds. That rattled us, and for ten minutes after that we were on the ropes.
“We then got back into the game and hit them with three good goals through Kyle (Tooze), Ben (McLean) and Zac (Drew).
“We were in complete control until Kyle somehow managed to pass the ball to the Gosport striker standing 30 yards behind our backline, who took it around our ‘keeper Martin Horsell and walked it into an empty net, meaning we led by only 3-2 at half-time.
“Gosport started the second half strongly and Brett Williams scored with a lovely 25-yard dipping volley in all fairness to make it 3-3.
“Thankfully, Kyle then made up for his earlier error by cutting in from the left and putting us back in front, and shortly after that Zac latched on to a short back-pass to make it 5-3. It was game over, surely; but, not us! Gosport continued to attack and got their fourth with ten minutes to go.
“We managed to hang on and, at the end of the day, three points was all that mattered, although we made it hard work for ourselves.”
The three points sent Yate to the cusp of a safety spot and in good heart to lock horns with a Met Police outfit who parade a mixed bag of results so far occupying tenth place in the table.
There’s more good news for the Bluebells too, as Callum Wood,
Ioan Richards, Khari Allen and back-from-suspension Darren Mullings are all in contention for recalls tomorrow.
Paulton Rovers expect to have two influential full-backs available again for their away-day with lowly Lymington Town in the Southern League’s second tier.
The fixture presents an opportunity for Rovers to start working their way back to healthier midtable climes after a truly testing start to Craig Loxton’s reign as manager continued with Saturday’s 2-0 home defeat to table-toppers Sholing, hard on the heels of a 4-1 Winterfield Road setback at the hands of another high-flying opponent in Tavistock three days beforehand.
Loxton conceded: “Saturday’s defeat by Sholing was very difficult to take. We started well, just as we’d done against Tavistock, only to find ourselves two down at half-time to two quick breaks in the latter stages of the first half. Every mistake we make seems to be punished, and Sholing are one of those big and physical sides who do just that.
“Having challenged our lads to give it a good go in the second half, I did give them credit for carrying the fight to Sholing. After that collapse against Tavistock, we could have crumbled again. Instead, we dug deep and went toe to toe with them in the second half.”
Loxton added: “This is a recurring pattern with us; we’ve been doing okay in spells, without turning our control into complete performances.
“We were the better team in the first half against Tavistock, playing our best football since I took charge, to take them into half-time goalless with seemingly all to play for. Instead, Tavistock hit us with four goals inside the first 15 minutes of the second half. It was a case of us again failing to build on the momentum we’d had. Some of their goals were down to individual errors in key areas on our part, although credit where it’s due, a couple of Tavistock’s finishes were very good ones. In fact, their striker, Liam Prynn, scored all four of their goals.”
Loxton, who can recall full-backs Nuno Felix and James Byrne to his squad, said: “We always knew our first four/five games in charge would be against top sides.
“Yes, ideally, we’d like more points on the board than we have. But elements of our play have been positive.
“If you look at league results across the board, everyone seems to be able to beat anyone, Sholing, possibly, aside.
“There have been some highscoring, see-sawing games which can be heartstopping for us managers to watch, but it’s certainly exciting for neutrals!”
Few, if any, would have predicted at the start of the season Bristol Manor Farm would be second bottom of the Division One South table fast approaching Christmas.
Yet that’s where they find themselves as they seek to pick themselves up from four straight defeats, the latest Wednesday night’s 4-2 home loss at the hands of high-flying AFC Totton.
Manor Farm, increasingly desperate now for an upturn in fortunes, try again tomorrow as they host a Bashley outfit gazing at the prospect of entering the play-off places with a victory.
Lightning effectively struck twice for Lee Lashenko’s strugglers this week.
Having pulled level with secondplaced hosts Wimborne Town in the dying embers on Saturday to tie a cracking contest up at 2-2, Farm fell at the death to a speculative shot from the halfway line to somehow go down 3-2.
Four days on against Totton, and The Creek team were restoring parity once more, as Steve Kingdon’s 77th-minute strike made it 2-2, only for the visitors to go on and clinch that 4-2 win.
Speaking ahead of Wednesday’s latest setback, Lashenko said of the weekend Wimborne blow: “What a game it was between two outstanding sides. A draw would have been fair, but we know the season so far hasn’t been fair to us.
“We know we’re in the wrong area of the table at this moment, but come January time this league could look a lot different.”