Match Report
Yate Town 2 Tiverton Town 2
Monday 29th July 2024
Pre-season friendly
Yate Town, in their final pre-season friendly, on another very warm summer’s evening, gave a generally good performance against higher level opposition, and were excellent for a half hour period in the second half but were denied a win by a late Tiverton Town equaliser.
Darren Mullings made a number of changes from the side that beat Westbury United on Friday evening and it was the visitors who started the brightest with Jeff Forkuo shooting straight at Aaron Sainsbury from 20 yards after just 6 minutes. Tiverton then nearly took the lead when, following the referee indicating that a throw in was to Yate, he then changed his mind and Tiverton took a quick throw in and moments later struck the crossbar. However, they did take the lead after 20 minutes when following a corner from the left, and a subsequent goalmouth scramble, Joe Parker forced the ball over the line.
Lucas Tomlinson in action during the first half.
Yate Town started to get more into the game with Lucas Tomlinson troubling the Tiverton defence and a couple of free kicks from the right caused the Tiverton defence a few problems. After Forkuo had a headed goal disallowed for Tiverton, being clearly offside, Stan Wyatt set up Marlon Jackson who fired just wide. With moments of the half remaining Parker broke free for the visitors but put his low shot just wide of Aaron Sainsbury’s left-hand post.
Yate Town made a number of substitutions at half time with Lewis Hall on for Dan Dempsey, Lloyd James for Ewan McMillan and one trialist off and another on and the hosts started to dominate play and it was no surprise when they equalised following a fine move down the right involving James Taylor which ended with Will Christopher crashing the ball home from 20 yards after 51 minutes. James Taylor nearly put Lloyd James through before Yate took the lead when Marlon Jackson scored from the edge of the penalty area, despite the Tiverton goalkeeper getting a hand to the ball, just before the hour mark.
Will Christopher scores Yate Town’s equaliser from the edge of the area.
Marlon Jackson (right) puts the Bluebells in front.
Further substitutions were made by each side and both sides made half chances with Tiverton hitting the post and then following a clear foul on Wayne Nderemani, Tiverton thought they had got anequaliser but the goal was ruled out. There followed an exchange of words between the referee, KevinSlade and the Tiverton bench and Ben Gerring was sent off from the Tiverton dugout.
Stan Wyatt shot over following a good move but with just 4 minutes remaining Leighton Thomas equalised from close range to put Tiverton level.
Yate Town manager, Darren Mullings, was disappointed with the late equaliser, but the pre-season preparations have gone well and the Bluebells start their campaign in earnest on Saturday when they entertain Holyport in the FA Cup.
Yate Town: Sainsbury, Taylor (Byrne), Nderemani, Dempsey (Hall), McMillan (James), Guest, Tomlinson,
Christopher, Trialist (trialist), Jackson (Hillier), Wyatt
Attendance: 202