Junior Football

Wotton Rovers 4 Thornbury Under-18s North 8

THORNBURY Under-18s North wrapped up their final pre-season with a convincing 8-4 away win against local rivals Wotton Rovers.

Thorns started the game playing down the slope and right from the start, they were trying to play the early through ball for their strikers.

This was causing the home team all sorts of problems.

Wotton were struggling to get out of their half and they fell behind after the visitors broke quickly and the ball fell to Felix Brittan to grab the opening goal.

Wotton responded and forced Sam Blunden in goal for Thorns to make a couple of fine saves.

Thorns extended their lead when they again broke quickly, this time Dan O’Connor calmly slotting the ball home.

Thorns quickly extended the lead after a good move down the right saw Brittan grab his second.

Thornbury then made it 4-0 when another flowing move caught Wotton out and O’Connor grabbed his second by poaching a goal at the back post.

Then in a crazy ten minutes spell, the game erupted with a four-goal burst.

Wotton struck but Thornbury responded immediately through Denym Di Mauro bravely out paced the home defence and beat the oncoming keeper to the ball to make it 5-1.

Wotton were then awarded a penalty. The kick was saved by the impressive Blunden but Wotton were not to be denied and pulled another goal back to make it 5-2.

There was still time for Thornbury to grab their sixth goal before the break when Mike Tanner, on the right, smashed it past the helpless Wotton keeper.

Thornbury started the second half slowly and took time to adjust to playing up the slope.

Wotton were more determined and they were rewarded when they grabbed a third goal after Thornbury failed to clear danger.

Wotton, buoyed by that early second-half goal, played with their tails up and grabbed another goal to make it 6-4.

Thornbury made some more positional and personnel changes and this had the desired effect as they slowly and surely began to dominate.

Thornbury then scored their seventh when debutant Jacob Budd grabbed a goal with a strong shot.

That took the wind out of Wotton’s sails and Thornbury grabbed the final goal of the game when O’Connor completed his hat-trick to end pre-season in style.