Match Report
Yate Town 1 Melksham Town 1
McCootie 62 Sady 26
Southern League Division One South
Saturday 15th March 2025
In a game that saw 8 bookings and a sending off for Melksham, the visitors managed to grab a point against league leaders Yate Town at the South West Interiors Stadium and with Evesham winning 2-1 at Falmouth, the Bluebells lead at the top of the table has been reduced to 2 points, but they do have a game in hand.
Yate Town manager, Darren Mullings, made a number of changes to the side that lost last time at Evesham and with Lucas Tomlinson suspended, brought James Taylor and Will Larvin, both coming back from injury, into the starting lineup, with James Byrne dropping down to the bench.
In front of an excellent crowd of 634, the game got off to a slow start and despite an early on target effort from Melksham, a foul on the dangerous King Baidoo by Robbie James, saw the defender sent off for his challenge, as Baidoo raced down the left wing in the 21st minute.
Three minutes later, a fierce shot from Lewis Hall, from outside the penalty area, saw Melksham goalkeeper, Jude Franks, make a spectacular fingertip save to tip the ball over the crossbar. This was to be his last real involvement in the game as Franks went down from a challenge in a crowded penalty area and play was delayed for 15 minutes before the goalkeeper was structured off with a serious knee injury. The medical staff from both clubs should be congratulated with the professional way that they dealt with this incident. Luke Ballinger came off the bench to take Jude Franks place. However, just prior to this injury, Melksham, despite being a man down, had taken the lead in the 26th minute, when Henry Sady found space in the Yate penalty area to fire home.
Man of the Match, King Baidoo, in action during the second half.
Despite these setbacks, Melksham restricted Yate to just a couple of half chances before half time, with King Baidoo heading just wide from a Lloyd James free kick and Joe Guest shooting over. Harry Baker shot just wide for Melksham as the half drew to a close, with a total of 21 added minutes played in this half due to the injury to Jude Franks.
The second half did not see the onslaught that many home fans had expected and despite a number of substitutions by Yate Town and a raft of bookings for the visitors, it was just after the hour before Yate managed to equalise through Nick McCootie, his shot hitting Luke Ballinger, spinning up into the air and McCootie reacted quickly to pounce and put the ball into the back of the net.
Nick McCootie equalises for the Bluebells and below Ross Stearn celebrates.
With Yate now on equal terms they went looking for the winner but apart from a King Baidoo header that went just wide of the post following a corner, Melksham’s packed defence manage to repel what was in front of them with Ballinger happy to collect crosses when needed and rarely extended otherwise.
Nick McCootie tries to break through the Melksham defence.
Melksham will be thrilled with their point gained, against all the odds, but for the Yate team they need to get back to winning ways as soon as possible to maintain their top spot, which they have held since last August, and with 8 games remaining, five away and three at home there is all to play for in the coming few weeks left of this season.
The Bluebells travel to Westbury on Tuesday evening, Bideford next Saturday before entertaining Bemerton on 29th March.
Yate Town: Finch, Larvin (Stearn 54), Christopher (Nderemai 45+8), Dempsey (Jackson 65), Hall, James, Adams, Guest, Baidoo, McCootie, Taylor (Byrne 75).
Unused sub: Wyatt
Bookings: Guest (63) Hall (77)
Melksham Town: Franks (Ballinger 44), Thompson, James, Graham, Hendy, Sady, Baker (Haffenden 81), Regula (Lynden 44), Carter, Hallett, Davis
Bookings: Thompson (54), Lyden (58), Hallett (60), Ballinger (68), Sady (72), Davis (79), Carter (84), Graham (85)
Sent off: James – straight red (21)
Unused sub: Summerfield
Referee: Nathaneal Wormleighton
Attendance: 634
Yate Town Man of the Match: King Baidoo chosen by match sponsors Chris Lloyd and Friends in memory of Ian Lloyd
and below ball sponsors: PJ Bryer
