Bristol Rovers loanee stars on his Yate return

Bristol M. Farm....... 2

New signing Lewis Leigh-Gilchrist scored a brace on his second debut to help Yate Town to victory against Bristol Manor Farm writes John Davis.

A dominant first half was followed by a nervy second period as Manor Farm proved that ten men are often more difficult to break down than eleven.

The home side gave a debut to goalkeeper Aaron Sainsbury from Bristol City while Lewis Leigh-Gilchrist made a welcome return to the club and took his place in midfield to in place of the suspended Nick Peare.

It was all Yate during the early stages with Farm goalkeeper Ben John denying Jack Twyman, Leigh-Gilchrist and Mike Bryant blasting over the crossbar after John had failed to hold a corner from Adam Price. The opening goal came on 18 minutes. David Sims-Burgess' shot as he cut in from the left was not held by John and an alert Joe Guest squared the loose ball to Bryant who finished with the simplest of tap-ins.

The one-way traffic continued with Sims-Burgess hitting the crossbar before five minutes of mayhem followed after Ben John had tackled Leigh-Gilchrist on the edge of the box. When the dust settled, Farm's Stuart Tovey was shown a red card while John and Leigh-Gilchrist both received cautions.

Leigh-Gilchrist soon recovered to make it 2-0 with a delightful chip over John after a precision pass from Guest but Farm were right back in the game four minutes before the break when Jamie Adams finished off a move he'd started by accepting Jordan Rogers' clever flick to beat Sainsbury.

Leigh-Gilchrist got his second goal of the game from close range after 55 minutes after Ollie Mehew sprung the offside trap.

Farm hit back immediately to narrow the margin again, this time courtesy of a low drive from Lewis Bamford.

Sainsbury did well to save at the feet of Rogers as the visitors went in search of an equaliser and there were some tense moments for Yate even when Farm went down to nine men after a second yellow card for Lloyd Mills but Yate went on to seal victory.

Admittedly, there were chances to improve the goal difference at the other end too with Mehew and Langworthy having shots blocked and Leigh-Gilchrist squandering chances to complete his hat-trick when he was played through one-on-one.