By Reece Chambers

TYTHERINGTON Rocks fired five goals past Purton on Wednesday night with an impressive display of attacking football in a 5-0 win.

Victory for the Rocks is their third of the season as they look to finish a rather disappointing campaign on a high.

Despite very little to cheer about this season, Dan Gillespie’s side showed tremendous determination and energy right from the first minute of this mid-week clash. The Rocks had an attacking line up, with Liam Gale and Luke Whittam providing dangers for the Purton defence.

However, it was Purton who were awarded a penalty in the 9th minute after some intricate passing play allowed Jamie Sheppard in behind the Rocks, defence only to be fouled inside the area. The resulting penalty was taken by Ollie Hunt but Adam Clark saved the shot well down to his right.

Just one minute later, the Rocks capitalised on the penalty miss and took the lead. Purton’s defence was caught off guard when a misplaced backpass found its way to Luke Whittam who clinically chipped the ball over the helpless Max Schofield into an empty net.

In a game with attacking impetus from both sides, Liam Gale appeared to be thriving best on the right wing for Tytherington. He got the better of the Purton left-back Josh Kirby on several occasions in the opening half an hour but each time failed to produce the final product.

At half time, the Rocks would have wanted to have a two or three goal lead after a few missed chances. The attacking intent was a sign of things to come with a Purton defence seemingly unable to deal with the threat.

In the second half, Tytherington came out with the same attacking threat. Whittam switched to being a sole striker with Mbika on the left, allowing the attack to be much more well balanced. Whittam got a chance on the 50 minute mark after Gale crossed from the right but his shot was well saved by Schofield.

Nevertheless, the Rocks got the all important second goal in the 59th minute through Luke Barstow. The centre-back headed well from a corner into a top left of the goal. The ball, though, rebounded out of the top left stanchion which allowed Purton to clear to the edge of the area where Jack Edge blasted the ball into the roof of the net. However, by the time the ball entered the goal for a second occasion, the linesman had signalled that the ball crossed the line from Barstow’s header. The Rocks were in dreamland by the 67th minute when Whittam got his second, and his side’s third, following some poor defensive play from Purton. Lewis Bezer latched on to another misplaced pass to slot in Whittam who calmly finished into the bottom right corner.

By the now, the Rocks were brimming with confidence and looked a world apart from what their league position of second bottom might suggest. Paradoxically, Purton’s defence was in dismay which allowed Tytherington to score their fourth. It was Whittam, again, who converted well from 10 yards to get his hat-trick in a good attacking performance.

Substitute, Ryan Stevenson, even managed to get on the score sheet in the 80th minute following an accurate cross from the left. Stevenson, unmarked, headed well inside the area to top off an impressive performance for the home side.

To the defence’s delight, Tytherington also held firm in the final few minutes to obtain a rare clean sheet which is their first since a 0-0 draw with New College Swindon back in mid-October.

On Saturday, the Rocks host 4th placed Hook Norton at 3pm.