Gloucestershire County Cup semi-final
Yate Town 0 Shortwood United 1

YATE Town crashed out of the Gloucestershire County Cup at the semi-final stage on Tuesday night as they conceded a sloppy goal and failed to convert countless chances in front of the Shortwood United net.
It was a disappointing end to the competition but Yate now have to turn things around in a matter of days before they face Cinderford Town in the league on Saturday.
A second-half strike from Shortwood’s lively winger Josh Egan was the difference between the teams, but the Yate defence and goalkeeper Martin Horsell were left kicking themselves as to how Egan managed to get the ball into the back of the net.
The incident spoilt an otherwise decent game for Horsell, who made a couple of fine stops in the first-half including an excellent double save three minutes from the interval.
By then, Jordan Rogers had a crack from twenty yards only to see Shortwood keeper Tom King leap sideways and fist the ball away from what would have been a tremendous goal.
Jake Evans also had a shot on target that was well held by King, while Jake Jackson squeezed the ball around the visitor's defence but saw his strike zoom wide.
It was one of those games that had penalties written all over it as the Yate defence knuckled down before the break to help Horsell around the six-yard area where United’s tall striker Lewis Sommers was making a real nuisance of himself and threatening to scramble one in if not marked intensely.
The teams turned around at stalemate but, from then on, Yate had a wealth of possession and territory, enough to have given them a comfortable victory if the countless crosses from excellent left-back Jake Cox had found somebody to provide a touch or a head and get it into the Shortwood net.
Cox’s ability to take the ball, control it, dance to the byline and provide telling crosses was the biggest source of a threat Yate had.
Once or twice, long balls through midfield worked, the most decisive of which saw a boot over the visiting defence that put Rogers clear with only King to beat but saw the striker fire wide.
Yate were not helped in the goalmouth scrambles they created by a stout Shortwood defence who blocked and challenged danger.
So despite all of this, Shortwood delivered the sucker-punch completely against the run of play as a ball was delivered across into the penalty area on the right.
Egan hit it straight at Horsell and watched in delight for him – and horror for Yate – as it rose into the air, landed behind the confused home keeper’s back and required a simple tap into an empty net.
It was a hammer blow but Yate would not lay down and, as Cox continued to take Shortwood right-back Sam Rawlins to the cleaners, chance after chance was blocked, scrambled away or a wild shot flew off target.
But the best chance was left until the very last. With seconds remaining, it looked like the end for Yate but an arrowed corner found sub Joe Chandler unmarked, three yards in front of goal and with the equaliser begging to be scored.
Somehow, Chandler’s perfectly-struck header rocketed past the post and with it Yate waved goodbye to the County Cup for another year.