Yate Town Blue 0 St Nicholas 1
Bristol Combination League Division 3
Sunday 6th October 2024
Yate Town’s U18 Blue team must be wondering how they came away empty-handed after a smash-and-grab by near-neighbours St Nicholas.
In a match that they dominated from start to finish, the young Bluebells were undone by a hotly-debated penalty call against them, and a penalty miss of their own.
Yate started on the front foot and were millimetres away from taking the lead within the first two minutes. Ollie Barton’s inch-perfect through-ball set Pete Roberts away, but the winger’s fierce drive came back off the inside of the post with the goalkeeper well-beaten.
The roles were reversed in the 12th minute, with Barton just unable to redirect Roberts’ cross, while Barton was also unlucky with a fierce drive that skimmed the bar moments later. Debutant Kris Olah also went close from distance as the Bluebells turned the screw.
But they were indebted to goalkeeper Kalel Caswell as St Nicholas mounted their first genuine attack with almost half-an-hour played. The visiting forward was put clear and his delicate chip was dropping in, but Caswell somehow got a fingertip to the ball and diverted onto the bar; an early candidate for save-of-the-season.
Striker Jayden Brown’s movement was causing the visiting defence all sorts of problems, but he saw a couple of presentable chances go begging, while skipper Callum Rogers stabbed wide from a peach of a cross from Luis Matthews as the half drew to a close, although Caswell again came to his side’s rescue just before the break.
The second-half began with the Bluebells in the ascendency, but a controversial moment changed the game with 50 minutes gone. Caswell was quick off his line to dive at the feet of the advancing St Nicholas winger and clearly got to the ball first, but the referee pointed to the spot, despite acknowledging that Caswell had got a hand on the ball. The resulting spot-kick was convincingly converted to leave Yate chasing the game.
It could have been worse but full-back Logan Briggs produced a goal-saving sliding tackle to deny the visitors a second, but the rest of the game saw Yate chasing an equaliser. Olah again went close, seeing his strike tipped around the post in the 58th minute, before the Bluebells were handed a golden chance to level the match with 12 minutes to go. Winger Harvey Cotter was wrestled to the ground in the box and the referee pointed to the spot, but Rogers’ spot-kick thumped the angle of post and bar and flew away to safety. Try as they might, Yate just couldn’t find the goal that their performance deserved and they came away empty-handed.
Yate Town Blue will look to return to winning ways next Sunday when they host struggling Almondsbury, while Yate Town White visit Swiss Valley Rangers in Division 4.
Yate Town Blue: Kalel Caswell; Archie Stanton, Dan Leary, Leyton Bath, Logan Briggs; Kris Olah, Ollie Barton; Pete Roberts, Callum Rogers, Harvey Cotter; Jayden Brown. subs: Finlay Jouxson, Tristan Base, Sam North, Luis Matthews.
Man of the Match: Kalel Caswell.