Evo-Stik Southern, West

Yate 0 Taunton 2

YATE inflicted Taunton's only league defeat of the season so far when the sides met at the Viridor Stadium in September but there was to be no repeat performance ON sATURDAY.

The runaway league leaders, now 12 points clear of Salisbury, took the win courtesy of two first half goals from industrious midfielder Shane White and, although Yate enjoyed their fair share of possession throughout, their passing game was not up to standard and they never really troubled Lloyd Irish in the Taunton goal.

White's first goal came after only eleven minutes, a strong header on the back post from Ryan Brett's pinpoint corner, the ball taking a slight deflection on the way in as it went through a crowd of players on the line.

A curling shot from White then sailed over the crossbar before Craig Veal sliced his shot wide from a good position after being put into space by Dan Sullivan.

At this stage, Yate's most potent force up front was Ross Langworthy. He turned defenders well inside the box on two occasions before driving his shots just wide of the post and later in the half almost got high enough to head a cross from Steve Davies on target.

At the other end, another header from White was diverted onto the crossbar and clear by Matty Tanner before the Taunton number six did not stop to check his stride as he volleyed in a right wing cross from Sullivan with only minutes remaining before half time.

Play was even during the second half but, although Yate broke forward whenever they could, Taunton were quick to get men behind the ball and real chances for the home side to get back into the game were few and far between.

Harvey Rivers did well to block a blast from Veal on the post early on and only a last ditch tackle from Sam Boulton prevented Les Afful from pulling the trigger when he burst through.

For Yate, a shot on the run from Langworthy was easily held by Irish, a tackle that ended a run from Kyle Tooze was deemed to have happened outside the box and Ben Brooks curled a late effort round the post.

The match ended a tough sequence of games where Yate have played teams in the top six and manager Paul Britton always acknowledged that the last three games would define the rest of our season.

Yate are away at Shortwood next Saturday

Attendance: 258

Yate Town: Rivers, Evans (Brooks 79 minutes), Tanner (Gregan 45 minutes), Peare, Boulton, Hitchings, Price, Llewellyn, Davies, Ellington (Tooze 65 minutes),Langworthy. Subs not used: Blake, Anderson.