Gloucestershire County League

Kingswood 3 Southmead CS Athletic 0

KINGSWOOD secured their second Gloucestershire County League win of the season with a 3-0 victory over Southmead CS Athletic on Saturday.

It was a game in which both sides needed to record a good result to help them climb the table.

The visitors were the first to show with a cross from Ricardo Dos Santos screaming out for a touch as it sped across the Kingswood six yard box. At the other end, the Southmead keeper Connolly Jarrett had to push away a good shot from Jordan Sims.

The home side opened the scoring on eight minutes from a corner from the right that was only half cleared by the defence and fell to Jordan Sims on the edge of the box to unleash a tremendous drive that flew into the top of the net.

Southmead were given the opportunity to get on level terms a couple of minutes later but Gary Booths free kick from thirty yards just cleared the bar.

The visitors who were playing the better football were unlucky in the 18th minute when Frank Stallard’s shot was brilliantly saved by keeper Chris Fox.

A tremendous run down the right by Kingswood’s Matt Poole who then cut in to give himself space to shoot ended disappointingly as the shot was blocked by a defender.

Fox kept the home side in the game when he again brought of another great save this time to deny Ricardo Dos Santos from levelling the score on 26 minutes.

The visitors continued to look the better side during the remainder of the first half but failed to break through the home defence. Southmead started the second-half with Simon Hopkins firing just wide of the target but then came the thunderbolt that knocked the stuffing out of Southmead with Kingswood scoring twice in the matter of four minutes.

The first was on 54 minutes and was a bullet header by Matt Poole from a Reece Provis cross and a second goal on 58 minutes from a dreadful mistake by Southmead keeper Connolly Jarrett who came off his line to collect a high ball but spilled it and gave Nick Bishop the simple task of knocking the ball into an empty net.

The two quick goals unhinged the visitors and they lost that passing movement that had been there in the first 45 minutes. Southmead did manage to gather themselves together and went close on two occasions but it did not look as though it was going to be their day. The home side had one more chance to make it four near the end but poor finishing let them down.

Nevertheless, it was an excellent win for Kingswood which has taken them to 12th place in the table and back in the race for a top half place in the coming weeks.