Hellenic League Division One West

Tytherington Rocks 0 Fairford Town 6

FAIRFORD Town wasted little time on Saturday in signalling their intention to strengthen their position as leaders of the Hellenic League Division One West when they visited Tytherington Rocks, scoring six goals and keeping a clean sheet themselves.

The visitors attacked strongly from the kick-off and within eight minutes, Fairford’s Jack Ellis opened the scoring with an innocuous header from a corner which was deflected under the crossbar by Rock’s luckless defender Courtney Charles.

Sensing goal opportunities, the visitors pressed forward, and two further goals followed in quick succession.

On 22 minutes, Jason Milhench shimmied through the Rocks defence and round the keeper for Fairford’s second goal followed three minutes later by Nathan Gambling, who slotted home a third following a slick sequence of passes.

Undaunted by the 3-0 scoreline, Tytherington pushed forward but too often lost possession to a hungry Fairford midfield.

Readily giving the ball to the position meant that Rocks keeper Dan Worton was called on several times to pull off point blank saves and given a chance to show off his outfield skills with some neat footwork.

However, on 44 minutes a strong accurate drive by Jason Milhench proved too powerful for the Rocks keeper to hold and Mulhench collected his second goal and Fairford’s fourth.

Within three minutes, keeper Worton was again in action in added time, this time upending the Fairford number ten in his penalty area, and, following the inevitable yellow card, Milhench stepped up to drive home the penalty for a half time Fairford lead of 5-0.

Following manager Nigel Gaston’s half time deliberations, Rocks lifted their game and the third quarter was a much more even affair.

Fairford’s keeper was called into action on several occasions although rarely in testing situations.

He was however well beaten twice on the 62nd minute when two goal-bound shots ricocheted off the crossbar in quick succession.

To lose possession to Fairford midfield invited trouble and so it proved when on 67 minutes, Matt Boucher slotted home the visitor’s sixth goal.

Rocks saved their best attacking move for the final quarter, when some rare crisp passing ended with the ball drifting agonisingly for a goal kick.

A shot into the side netting by Rock’s Josh Pirie in the 88th minute proved to be the nearest the home team were going to get to crossing the visitor’s line in the last period of the game.

The 6-0 victory for the visitors reflected a fair result in a game where a positive outcome would have been welcomed by either team for very different reasons.

Tytherington Rocks next home game is due in four weeks time on February 13 when Cirencester Development visit the Hardwicke Field with the game kicking off at 3pm.