Match Report
Thatcham Town 1 Yate Town 3
Dunstan 26 McCootie (pen) 75, Stearn 76, Baidoo 90+1
Southern League Division One South
Saturday 15th February 2025
Yate Town, trailing at the interval, produced an excellent second half performance to bag all three points with three goals in the final 20 minutes of the game.
Yate Town manager, Darren Mullings, kept the same starting eleven that beat Falmouth the week before but brought in new signing Jamie Adams, onto the bench, with Ross Stearn also returning to the squad following injury, plus Will Larvin. Ewan McMillan, Ryan Hillier and Nuno Felix were not involved.
On a sticky pitch, the game started slowly with an early effort from Thatcham’s Callum Willmoth sailing over the crossbar. Wayne Nderemani was a threat on the left for the visitors and a dangerous cross was well cleared by the Thatcham defence. After 26 minutes Thatcham had won a corner, the Yate defence failed to clear the ball which was eventually worked to the right-hand side and when a cross came in it was defender Josiah Dunstan who reacted first to score from close range.
Yate Town responded immediately and Nick McCootie made space for himself in the Thatcham penalty area but his shot came back off the far post, back into play and was eventually cleared.
Jamie Davies’ shot brought a good save from Joe Thomas in the Yate goal and following a free kick by Lloyd James, Yate captain, Joe Guest had a goal chalked off when his flying header was disallowed by the officials.
Joe Guest’s diving header is disallowed by the officials.
The second half started with Yate Town on the front foot and there followed, in the opening five minutes of the half, three goal mouth scrambles on separate occasions, when the Thatcham defence somehow managed to keep their lead intact.
One of the goalmouth scrambles eventually ends up with Thatcham Town goalkeeper, Matthew Pullinger, in possession of the ball.
Thatcham Town were, however, still looking to increase their lead and on one occasion, Yate town defender, Dan Dempsey made an excellent block to keep the ball clear of the visitor’s goal.
But Yate Town were becoming more dangerous and they were eventually rewarded when Lucas Tomlinson went down in the penalty area, right by the byline, and the referee adjudged there to have been a foul and awarded Yate Town a slightly dubious penalty. Nick McCootie stepped up to fire the ball home, from the spot, to level the scores.
Yate Town manager, having already brought on Jamie Adams for Wayne Nderemani introduced Ross Stearn for Lucas Tomlinson and within a minute Stearn had found space in the penalty area, following a flick on from Adams, and coolly slotted the ball past home goalkeeper Matthew Pullinger to put the Bluebells in front.
Substitute Ross Stearn scores to put the Bluebells 2-1 up
Joe Thomas was then forced into making a good save as Thatcham tried to get back into the game.
The referee, Scott Crowshaw, booked a number of players during the game and Kensley Maloney received a second booking for a deliberate handball and was sent off.
The game was in its closing stages when a strong run by King Baidoo resulted in him adding a third for the visitors as he fired home from inside the penalty area - and the comeback was complete. There was even time for substitute Stan Wyatt to draw a good save from Pullinger as Yate looked for a fourth goal.
After a sluggish opening period, Yate Town responded well in the second half to show why that are top of the table, against a side that have been showing improved form recently, despite their lowly league position.
With 12 league games to go the Bluebells have a 9-point lead at the top of the table but with Exmouth Town beating Bashley and Evesham losing 1-0 at Malvern, the gap has opened up by two more points, but with 36 points still to play for, and Yate visiting Evesham next month, the Bluebells need to keep winning points and performing to their best to keep the chasing pack away.
Yate Town’s next game is against Westbury United, to be played at Frome Town, now confirmed to be Monday 24th February with a 7.45pm kick-off.
Thatcham Town: Pullinger, Ceesay-Ceesay, Daniel-Spray, Willmoth, Bourne, Dunstan (Fox 90), Tanner (Anderson 77), Dundas, Johnson (Flippance 77), Maloney, Davies
Bookings: Dunstan (36), Johnson (51), Dundas (55), Davies (75), Maloney (17 and 85)
Sent-off: Maloney
Unused subs: Gwavana, Smith
Yate Town: Thomas, Byrne, Christopher, Hall, Dempsey, James, Tomlinson (Stearn 75), Guest, Baidoo (Wyatt 90+2), McCootie (Leniham 90+2), Nderemani (Adams 52)
Bookings: Tomlinson (13), Hall (32), James (36), Christopher (45), Guest (39)
Unused subs: Larvin
Referee: Scott Crowhurst
Attendance: 173
Yate Town Man of the Match: Dan Dempsey (pictured with Yate Town assistant manager, Paul Tovey).
