Shortwood Utd 2 Slimbridge 0

A SECOND-HALF double strike from Shortwood’s Jake Lee earned the Nailsworth side the points against a Slimbridge team who more than held their own against their near neighbours in an entertaining game at Meadowbank on Tuesday evening.
Slimbridge started the brightest and took the game to their hosts, putting them under pressure with some slick movement, but it was Shortwood who nearly scored first when Sam Hicks struck the post with a good shot on eight minutes.
Two minutes later, Sean Lawson had a strong shot after good interplay between Alex Hoyle and Adam Mace, Lawson’s shot going inches over.
On 25 minutes, Shortwood’s Matt Bennett let fly from 20 yards and despite the ball taking a wicked deflection, Adam Thomas made a splendid save to keep the scores level.
A huge kick upfield from Thomas deceived the Shortwood defence and as the ball bounced over the last defender, Lawson looked certain to score but Tom King in the home goal got a hand to the header – despite injuring himself when he collided with a fellow defender.
A minute from the break, Swans’ Mace found himself harshly cautioned by referee Alan Berrow, who otherwise had a splendid game, after a spat with a Shortwood defender on the touchline.
Shortwood came out looking much stronger in the second half, but Hoyle was dispossessed right in front of the dugout by Lee who ran clear but shot wide.
As Shortwood upped the tempo, the Swans were grateful to Thomas who made splendid saves from Meredith and Lee. But the ‘keeper could do nothing to stop the latter in the 65th minute when his shot from just inside the box opened the scoring for Shortwood.
Jamie Martin became the second Swans player in the referee’s notebook for a late challenge on former Slimbridge player Niall Halford.
Shortwood’s second-half dominance was rewarded with five minutes left when Lee pounced from close in after a great double save from Slimbridge man of the match Thomas.
It was Thomas to the rescue once again in the 90th minute when he denied Lee his hat-trick by pushing away his goalbound strike.
Slimbridge were left to reflect on was was a good performance but a disappointing result, and are obviously finding life tough in their first season in the Southern League.
l Manager Leon Sterling has put in seven days' notice of approach for two players this week in an attempt to strengthen his squad.