Evo-Stik Southern League Division One South and West

Slimbridge 0 Taunton Town 7

TAUNTON Town demolished Slimbridge in an eventful one sided encounter at Thornhill Park.

The only bright spot of the afternoon for Slimbridge was that the bottom two sides both lost, thus the nine point cushion that they have over the relegation places remains, with another round of games ticked off towards the end of the season.

Taunton made an impressive start to the game, but it was Slimbridge who had the first real opportunity - Jack Twyman shooting wide with three minutes on the clock.

At the other end, Pete Davies in the Slimbridge goal made a good stop when he pushed away Ross Staley’s header in the early exchanges.

The visitors took the lead on 15 minutes, when Jordan Rogers converted from close range after a header had come back off the bar, and five minutes later, the Peacocks doubled their lead, when Ed Palmer’s long throw was met by the head of Matt Wright, who beat Rich Thwaite to the ball to net the second.

On 33 minutes, an identical throw from Palmer saw Thwaite beat Wright to the ball this time, only for his header to end up in the same corner of the net, for the first of two Swans own goals.

Two minutes after the break, Staley converted an Ollie Chamberlain cross, only to see his effort ruled out for offside, but the respite was short lived for the Swans.

With just under an hour gone, Pierce Mitchell’s drilled effort was turned into his own net by Sam Turl for Taunton’s fourth.

On 68 minutes, Taunton’s Shane White picked up an innocuous second yellow card from Referee Gareth Hubbard for taking a free kick before the whistle had been blown and was dismissed, much to the bewilderment of everyone in the ground.

Ten minutes later though, numbers were evened up after a clash in the Slimbridge box, which saw Dean Turner pick up a straight red, and the awarding of a penalty to Taunton, despatched by Palmer for Taunton’s fourth.

Taunton notched a further two goals in the last ten minutes - Matt Buse with an impressive shot on 83 minutes, and Craig Veale with a classy 25 yard lob in the final minute, to round off a miserable afternoon for the hosts.

Slimbridge’s ‘Month of death’ now moves on to a visit to Fourth placed Evesham United on Saturday (3.00pm), followed by the visit of second placed Tiverton Town to Thornhill Park a week Wednesday (March 1st, 7.45pm) Team: Davies, Turl, Ryan Thwaite, Grimes, Rich Thwaite, Turner, Mace, Twyman, Sklenar (Stokes 62), Smith, Thomas (Jamie Martin 58) Supporters Man of the Match: Jack Twyman