Football: Thornbury beaten by title-chasers (From Gazette Series)

Football: Thornbury beaten by title-chasers

4:42pm Tuesday 30th December 2008 in Sport

Gloucestershire County League - King’s Stanley 3 Thornbury Town 0

THORNBURY Town travelled to title-chasing King’s Stanley on Saturday with a below strength squad due to injury and holiday commitments. This however gave manager Dave Lippiatt the opportunity to give debuts to two up and coming youngsters Dave Tweed and Tom Weeks both of whom have impressed in the under-18s and reserve teams this season. Also returning to the squad after a number of good games in the reserves, was Dan Woods taking the total number of players 18 or under to five, which is encouraging for the future of the club. Town had the better of the opening ten minutes although they never really threatened the strong Stanley rearguard. As the game went on Stanley began to show why they are challenging for the title and they continued to put constant pressure on the hard-working Town defence which stood firm. The half time whistle came with the score at 0-0 and a Stanley team utterly frustrated.

The second period started as the first finished with Stanley pushing hard for an opening. They were awarded a penalty after 55 minutes for handball but Sam Curry pulled off a stunning save. Youngster Dave Tweed of Thornbury was replaced on the hour mark but only after having made an excellent contribution on his debut. Before he had time to settle on the bench Stanley had pushed their noses in front with a goal following a corner on the left.

Thornbury had to push more players into their attack and introduced Tom Weeks for his first taste of County League football. Unfortunately this left gaps at the back and Stanley capitalised with a further two goals with no reply from Thornbury.

Manager Dave Lippiatt will be looking for more of the same in terms of commitment from his squad starting with their visit to local rivals Patchway Town on Saturday with the reserves entertaining Hardwicke and the under-18s also at home the following day. All are 2pm kick-offs.