Football: Stone strikes late winner for ten-man Yate (From Gazette Series)

Evo-Stik Southern League Division One South & West: Yate Town 3 Thatcham Town 2

11:15am Sunday 29th January 2012 in Yate and Sodbury Sport By Rob Iles

Yate Town showed tremendous spirit to come from behind with ten men to beat Thatcham with a dramatic late goal by Dave Stone.

Tom Warren was controversially sent off one minute before half-time with Yate trailing 2-1, but this seemed to spur them on as they dominated the second half with Hector Mackie equalising in the 76th minute before Stone struck with three minutes left.

Teenager Tyrone Mings lit the blue touch paper in a thrilling contest with a stunning strike for his first senior goal to give Yate the lead and although goalkeeper Josh Dempsey saved a penalty in the 19th minute, the game swung Thatcham’s way as they scored twice in nine minutes and looked on course for their first win in ten matches.

Tom Knighton was handed his Yate debut in place of the unavailable Russ Church on the right wing after joining from Mangotsfield and needed only seven minutes to make his mark as he laid the ball off for Mings, who drilled the ball into the bottom corner from 25 yards.

There was a long break in play as Thatcham striker Jemel Johnson went down injured before coming off, but that strangely seemed to work in the visitors’ favour as substitute Carl Self caused panic in Yate’s defence with his pace.

Two minutes after his introduction, he nipped in to get the ball ahead of Dempsey and was brought down for a penalty after Scott Thomas’ back-pass had put his goalkeeper in trouble.

The striker was going wide of goal and his touch was slightly heavy, which may have given Dempsey the benefit of doubt as he was just handed a yellow card, and he made the most of his escape by diving to his right to make a fine save from James Clark’s spot kick.

Self caused more confusion in Yate’s backline as he chased down a long ball on 25 minutes and although Dempsey came well off his line to get to there first this time, his clearance went straight to Clark, who expertly found the net from 40 yards.

Thatcham went ahead in the 34th minute when Tom Melledew’s ball down the middle caught the Yate defence flat and Self ran onto it to beat Dempsey from 12 yards.

Things seemed to get worse for Yate when Tom Warren was sent off for a two-footed lunge on Carl Davies by the halfway line. Although the decision appeared harsh as the right back won the ball, his other foot was high enough to be deemed dangerous and warrant the red card.

However, that led Yate boss Rob Cousins to take a more adventurous approach as he switched to three at the back and pushed Knighton up front with Stone and his side started the second half in the ascendancy.

It was hard to tell which team had the extra man as Yate pushed for the equaliser and Mackie scored the goal they deserved when his free kick from 20 yards went over the wall and somehow beat Strudley at his near post.

Mings got to the left byline and crossed the ball into the six-yard box, where Stone took a touch before sliding through Strudley’s legs.

There was more late drama to come as Melledew hit a volley from 20 yards that crashed off the underside of the crossbar in the 90th minute, but Yate hung on.

Yate Town: Dempsey, Warren, Mings, Nicholls, Thomas, Cousins, Groves, Vahid, Stone (Ferguson, 90), Knighton, Mackie. Subs not used: Meaker, Greenwood, McAlinden.

Ref: Mr C Husband.

Att: 135 Gazette star man: Tyrone Mings – A day to remember for the talented teenager as he scored his first goal for Yate and set up the winner.