Premiership

Cardiff and Met A 2 Wotton-under-Edge 3

WOTTON-under-Edge came from 2-0 down to win 3-2 against Cardiff Met and record their first Premiership win of the season.

Wotton went into the game confident of getting a result as performances grew in their new division each week.

The win has put Wotton level with Cardiff and Met A in eighth place in the table.

With a strong team talk from captain Alistair Hammond before the game, the boys were up for the challenge against a strong and youthful Cardiff side.

Cardiff started brighter, shooting across the goal but the shot was kept out by Wotton’s keeper and player of the match George Lampkin.

The Welsh team won the first short corner, which was well-placed into the goal off the post low down.

The goal spurred Wotton on and a few good chances fell their way. Marcus Smith was unlucky not to score when a ball into the circle by Henry Patteson was deflected and hit the post.

After a good spell of play from Wotton, Cardiff scored against the run of play with their forward skill breaking into the circle and rounding the keeper.

Not letting their heads go down, Wotton won a short corner which was slipped left for a classic Rob Davies slap into the keeper’s right-hand corner, making it 2-1.

As the half came to an end, player-coach Matt Fairburn asked for patience. It resulted in great work around the back, which created space down the right for Fairburn and Rich Owen to link up well.

Fairburn just had the on-coming Cardiff keeper to beat, which he did by calmly slotting the ball into the corner on his reverse.

The classic counter attack goal made it 2-2.

At half-time, Wotton’s heads were up and thjey wanted to take the momentum into the second-half.

Cardiff came out strong and Wotton defended well as a unit, with some great intercepting and tackling from Hammond, George Eskins and Patteson, keeping the scores level.

Wotton continued to work hard, counter attacking Cardiff who pressed high.

Wotton counter attacked down the left which led to the ball being cut back to Ryan Howarth for him to deflect it past the keeper making it 3-2.

The last five minutes were hard work for Wotton, but the team stayed calm and countered any final attacks, resulting in their first points of the season.

It was a good solid performance from the whole squad of 16 that travelled to Wales.