The Marches 1

Wotton-under-Edge 3rds 2 Leominster A 1

ON paper, Wotton-under-Edge thirds had a great line up and were expecting a strong win.

However, they started off a little slow, which gave the opposition a chance to put pressure on the Wotton defence.

However, Wotton’s goalie, Ben Gough, was on form and swept up any stray balls that came into the D.

The centre back pairing of Stuart Saunderson and Benjy Wells worked well together to diffuse the consistent Leominster attacks.

As Wotton started to wake up, wing backs Kieron Latimer and Jonathan Glover worked tirelessly created the space Wotton needed to pass the ball around Leominster with ease.

Across the midfield, Bruce Dunham and Callum Niddrie were at the centre of the park making big passes and occasionally going for mazy runs.

Out wide, running up and down the wings, Luke Messer and Jamie Chalmers easily beat the Leominster players’ pace, and the starting strike-force of Darren Pearce and Pat Carr kept the pressure on Leominster throughout the game.

Wotton finally warmed up and eventually got their first goal of the game with a good strike from Chalmers after a goalmouth battle.

The first half concluded and Wotton knew they needed to do more to secure the win.

With an inspirational team talk and a shuffle of formation by coach William Cruickshank, Wotton played with a higher intensity and kept most of the possession.

This caused Wotton to string several good passes together as the ball made its way into the D, with Carr passing across to Messer to finish it off: 2-0.

However, Leominster weren’t going to give up, and kept on pushing the tired Wotton side and were finally rewarded with a goal.

At 2-1 to Wotton, there was still another ten minutes to play and it was very tense. Both teams were on their last legs, and both were confident of coming out with some points after the game.

The home supporters cheered Wotton on as everyone in the Wotton team worked extremely hard to make sure Leominster didn’t steal any points.

In the final minute, Wotton went on one last attack, with Carr going on a final mazy run, drawing the keeper to finally release the ball to Chris Barton on a sprint to the penalty spot. He fired the ball in, but it just went wide.