Whitchurch Sports 2 Yate Town White 3
Own goal 13, Matthews 20, 52
Bristol Combination League Division 4
Sunday 22nd September 2024
Yate Town White maintained their winning start to the season in Division 4 of the Bristol Combination League with a 3-2 win at Whitchurch Sports on Sunday.
The young Bluebells made a very positive start to the game, with Billy Michael and Archie Morrison taking hold of the midfield battle from the first whistle, and the team was rewarded in the 13th minute. The ball was passed back to the home goalkeeper but with Ethan Matthews and Kian Bryant pressing him hard, he lost concentration and the ball ended up in the back of his net for an own goal.
Yate thought they’d doubled their advantage two minutes later when the lively Matthews raced clear on goal and finished smartly, but the goal was ruled out by the off-side flag, despite the striker looking comfortable on-side when the ball was played. But Yate, and Matthews, didn’t have to wait long to put it right. Again, the ball broke to Matthews in behind the defence, and once again he showed his calmness in front of goal to make it 2-0 with 20 minutes gone.
Whitchurch pulled one back in the 32nd minute with a decent long-range effort that Joe Tibbert could do nothing about, and the goal seemed to knock Yate’s confidence a bit. A scrappy 15 minutes followed, and Yate began to lose their shape a little, but a defence, well-marshalled by skipper Kyle Porter, repelled everything that Whitchurch had to throw at them and saw their team through to half-time with the 2-1 lead intact.
Yate began the second-half much as they had begun the first, with the team taking on board the half-team team-talk, and began to take hold of the contest once more. With Freddie Tizzard and Kian Bryant looking a constant threat out wide with their pace and trickery, Whitchurch were struggling to cope. A succession of corners saw the Bluebells go close to extending their lead, notably through midfielder Preston Fear who headed just over, but the third goal did arrive in the 52nd minute. Fear’s long-range drive was tipped onto the woodwork by the home goalkeeper, but Matthews was on-hand to turn home the rebound for his third goal in two games.
The Bluebells, in a 4-2-3-1 formation, continued to dominate, with Tibbert largely a spectator for much of the second-half, but they couldn’t turn their dominance into more goals, and had a late scare when the home-side pulled a goal back in the 90th minute, but Yate held firm to record their second win of the season.
Yate Town White: Joe Tibbert; Kyle Porter, Zack Wigginton, Stephen Adeniyi, Ryan Base; Billy Michael, Archie Morrison; Freddie Tizzard, Dom Hodges, Kian Bryant; Ethan Matthews. subs: Billy Read, Josh Miles, Preston Fear, Riley Helliker.
Yate Town Man of the Match: Kyle Porter.