Bishops Cleeve 1 Yate Town 2
Dunbar 86 Guest 4, Taylor 50
Southern League Division One South
Saturday 28th December 2024
Yate Town showed the form of a top of the table side as they played some excellent football for the first hour, scored twice, before coming under pressure from Bishops Cleeve in the final period of the game, but the visitors had a number of chances to add to their total.
Yate Town manager, Darren Mullings, had to make a couple of changes from the starting line up from the Bristol Manor Farm game, just a couple of days previously, with Stan Wyatt coming in for the unavailable Bristol Rovers loanee, Ollie Dewsbury. Dan Dempsey and Will Christopher in place of the injured Will Larvin and Ross Staley. Ryan Hillier and Wayne Nderemani were added to the bench.
On a cold, damp and foggy afternoon, Yate Town got off to the perfect start when James Taylor, Ross Stearn and Lucas Tomlinson were involved in a good move down the right and Joe Guest met Tomlinson’s cross in the 4th minute to put the Bluebells in front.
Five minutes later Bishops Cleeve had an excellent chance to equalise when Ethan Dunbar crossed from the right and James Harding, at the far post, put the ball wide. With Yate dominating Lucas Tomlinson robbed a Bishops Cleeve defender and put Ross Stearn through on goal but his effort was well saved by Lewis Clayton in the home goal. Ross Stearn then cut inside but his excellent shot was matched by an equally good save and Clayton pushed the ball round the post for a corner. Another flowing move ended with Stearn shooting straight at Clayton from the edge of the area.
Ross Stearn goes close in the first half.
With 25 minutes of the game gone Bishops Cleeve won a free kick on the left and when the ball was floated into the Yate penalty area the home side made a strong appeal for a penalty for a foul on Matt Bower but referee Mitchell Cartwright waved play on.
Yate continued to play some excellent football on the 3G pitch with James Taylor and Stan Wyatt both testing Clayton. Substitute Jay Malshanskyj, who had come on for the injured James Harding (the Bishops Cleeve forward having collided with goalkeeper Aaron Sainsbury just outside the Yate penalty area as Sainsbury kicked the ball clear) shot straight at Sainsbury from the edge of the area in a rare attack by the home side.
After 33 minutes a quick free kick by Aaron Sainsbury found James Taylor and his pass to Joe Guest saw the Yate Town captain’s shot strike a post and this was followed by an excellent run by Ross Stearn as he beat a number of players but he was again thwarted by Clayton who produced another fine save.
In the final minute of the half Dan Dempsey made an outstanding headed clearance as it looked as if the home side might equalise.
Joe Guest’s shot hits the post.
The second half saw a Jay Malshanskyj shot bring a good save from Aaron Sainsbury but 5 minutes into the second half Ross Stearn flicked header set James Taylor clear on the right and he drove towards the Bishops Cleeve penalty area before unleashing an unstoppable shot into the top corner to put the Bluebells two up.
James Taylor shoots to put Yate Town 2-0 up.
Ross Stearn then had a great chance to add another from Lucas Tomlinson’s cross but dragged his shot just wide of the post.
With just under an hour of the game gone Yate’s Lewis Hall had to go off injured and Wayne Nderemani come on with James Byrne going to right back and Will Christopher into the middle of the defence.
It was at this point that the home side then started to gain more possession of the ball and put the Yate defence under pressure; Jay Malshanskyj shot over and Aaron Sainsbury had to make one excellent save but the Yate Town defence dealt well with the pressure but with 4 minutes to go a Matt Bower cross ended up with Ethan Dunbar scoring for Bishops Cleeve from inside the penalty area to make for a tense finish but Yate could have made the game entirely safe when two minutes into stoppage time Lucas Tomlinson set Ross Stearn free but his shot as again well saved by Lewis Clayton, who had an outstanding game in the home goal.
This victory was an excellent way to finish 2024, with the Bluebells 10 points clear at the top of the table and having lost only 6 league games throughout the calendar year and also having reached the 50 points mark, the same number of points that they achieved from 36 league games at the end of last season.
There is plenty to look forward to in 2025 for Yate Town fans in the last four months of the season and the 19 league games still to come.
Bishops Cleeve: Clayton, Jeremiah (Selman 73), Bower, Davies, Turner (Nelmes 55), Liddiard, Evans-Harriott (Turley 55), McClean, Dunbar, Langworthy, Harding (Malshanskyj 24)
Unused sub: Stalley
Bookings: Harding (20), McClean (71)
Yate Town: Sainsbury, Taylor (Felix 87), Byrne, Hall (Nderemani 58), Dempsey, James, Christopher, Guest, Stearn, Tomlinson, Wyatt (Hillier 77)
Unused sub: Larvin, Jeremy
Bookings: Stearn (52), Sainsbury (70)
Referee: Mitchell Cartwright
Attendance: 294
Yate Town Man of the Match: James Taylor