Real Thornbury 2 Thornbury Town 2

THORNBURY’S first football derby ended all square as Town and Real shared four goals in a competitive friendly match at Real’s new home ground at the GFA headquarters, Oakland Park in Almondsbury.

Real broke the deadlock as the dangerous Sam Taylor turned on the edge of the Town box and fired home an effort into the bottom left hand corner.

Following the half-time interval it only took Town ten minutes to get back on level terms as a half cleared corner fell to Danny Thomson, who rifled a low shot through a ruck of bodies and into the corner of the net.

However, it wasn’t long until Real were back in front with their man of the match Ross Griffin curling a delightful 20-yard free-kick into the Town net.

Town rightfully felt aggrieved when denied a penalty following a last ditch Tom Miller tackle.

With the game heading into injury time the referee awarded a soft looking penalty following what he deemed to be a push in the box at a corner. Craig Lancastle confidently swept home the resulting penalty to see the match end in a draw.

Both teams now move onto completing their pre-season fixtures ahead of their competitive league campaigns, with Real looking for promotion in the Bristol & District Senior Division and Town challenging in the Gloucestershire County League.