Yate Town U18 White 3 Keynsham Town 2
Bryant 26 (pen), Adeniyi 37, Helliker 62
Bristol Combination League Division 4
Sunday 12th Jabuary 2025
Yate Town U18 White returned to winning ways as a good performance earned them a 3-2 victory over Keynsham Town on Sunday.
Having not played for almost a month, the young Bluebells were perhaps understandably a little slow to get going, and they went behind early on, the visiting forward finishing smartly past goalkeeper Matt Crossley from the right-hand side of the box.
But Yate began to work their way back into the game with skipper Kyle Porter, Billy Michael and the particularly impressive Tristan Base beginning to take control of the midfield, and they were rewarded with an equaliser with 26 minutes played. Winger Riley Helliker brought the ball down in the inside right channel and fed the ball inside to Base. He in turn found Michael who fed Kian Bryant on the left. As he shaped to shoot, the winger was brought down. The referee pointed to the spot and Bryant picked himself up to make no mistake from 12 yards, slotting into the bottom corner for his third goal of the season.
Porter fired just over with a long-range effort moments later, but Yate completed the first-half turnaround in the 37th minute, when Josh Miles’ inswinging corner from the right was bundled home at the far-post by Stephen Adeniyi, for his second goal in three games since being moved to centre-forward.
Yate again had to manage the first part of the second-half carefully, as Keynsham came out with renewed vigour, but in a cagey 20 minutes of few chances, Yate worked hard and got their reward just after the hour mark. Two subs combined to creat the opportunity, as Dom Hodges drove past several challenges into the opposition half before finding Jedd Miller, and he rolled the ball back for Riley Helliker to power home an excellent strike from 20 yards.
Yate were far from having it all their own way, though, although Ethan Matthews was proving a threat for Yate eon the counter-attack, but with ten minutes to play, Keynsham pulled a goal back to jangle the home team’s nerves.
The visitors threw everything they could at the young Bluebells for the final ten minutes, but the back four of Preston Fear, Zack Wigginton, Josh Miles and Cameron Nutt, as well as James Penfold, who made a solid debut as a substitute, stood firm, with Crossley commanding his goal well behind them and Adeniyi returning to his old position at centre-back to help see out the final few minutes.
It was an encouraging performance from Yate, who played some really nice football at times. They are back in league action next Sunday when they host Swiss Valley Rangers.
Starting XI: Matt Crossley; Preston Fear, Zack Wigginton, Josh Miles, Cameron Nutt; Tristan Base, Kyle Porter, Billy Michael; Riley Helliker, Stephen Adeniyi, Kian Bryant.
Substitutes: Dom Hodges, Ethan Matthews, James Penfold, Jedd Miller.
Man of the Match: Tristan Base.