Report

League leaders Cheddar travelled to last season’s title winners, and the league’s in form team, Shirehampton, keen to get their title push back on track after 2 successive away defeats against other challengers.

Cheddar welcomed back Wayne Scorse after his one game suspension as well as influential central defender, Chris Beers, after his injury break. They lined up with a solid unit to deal with the expected onslaught from Shire, but with options on the bench to change the game if necessary.

The early play was end to end with both teams looking to attack although the tough tackling hosts had the greater share of possession but Cheddar’s defensive unit looked solid, apart from one moment of indecision which left Scott Bamford clear on goal but he failed to beat the Cheddar keeper, Simon Venn, from the edge of the box.

Soon after this Cheddar took the lead when a good ball out of defence from Joel Butcher found Adam Jones 30 yards out, and surrounded by two defenders and an onrushing keeper, but the club’s leading scorer shot early from long range to score his 13^th goal in just 12 games since his annual return from Wells City!

Cheddar were then forced to make a change as a neck injury to Rob Branch saw Alex Brandrick come on to play at left back, the 17 year old defender having a superb game for the hour he was on the pitch. All the time he was working superbly down the left with Cheddar’s other 17 year old starlet, Joel Butcher, who always looked threatening running at the home defence.

The rest of the half was also fairly even with both teams looking capable of snatching a goal but Cheddar’s defence of King, Underhill, Beers and Brandrick was looking solid and strong, although sitting a little deep for assistant Manager, Chris Underhill’s, comfort! Behind them Simon Venn was commanding and dealing with anything that got through, but the team was defending well as a unit with the midfield trio of Joe Green Mike Kay and Wayne Scorse, getting through a massive effort to keep the team solid.

Cheddar’s management was delighted at the break but warned that a wounded Shire team coming down the hill, with a big partisan support behind them, would be a big challenge and nothing was won in 45 minutes. How the heroic Cheddar side responded to the message, with the defence and midfield playing even tougher and the forwards, Adam Jones and Billy Manning, chasing and hassling unselfishly throughout to help the team defend their lead. Cheddar also looked threatening as Shire piled men forward, with a lot of threat on the break.

It was Cheddar who got the next goal and what a goal it was, he midfield and forwards linked superbly with five or six quick passes knocked around leaving the ball with Joel Butcher in a one to one against the Shire centre back, everyone expected the youngster to sprint at the defender and use his pace but after a couple of strides the ball was dispatched into the corner of the net giving the keeper no chance.

At this stage Cheddar brought on Simon Panes for the hard working Billy Manning to add a little more pace to the breakaways, Cheddar were still defending resolutely with Venn having little to do as the defence kept the hosts at arms length, although they did create two chances that could have brought reward and also Venn got down at his near post to make a fantastic save. The third and decisive goal then came as Cheddar broke quickly and ended up with Panes and Jones two on one against the shire centre back and Panes, who could have knocked it sideways to Jones, shot low and hard into the corner to make it 3-0 and send the Cheddar supporters into delirium.

With 3 minutes left Cheddar lost concentration for the first time in the whole game and Shire scored a consolation goal but Cheddar, with Callum McManus on by this time, held on to see the win through, even managing to spurn a couple of late chances themselves.

The Cheddar management trio of Tim Richens, Chris Underhill and Mark Green were delighted with this result but even more so the performance. Shire is a tough place to go, especially on the back of two away defeats, and the character and commitment shown augurs well for the rest of the season where they will hope to learn from last season’s end of year slump. With Aaron Honeywell, Adam Davis, Paul Whittaker and George Booth all to come back to add to the squad over the next few weeks there is no doubt that the team can achieve their aspirations if they continue to put this level of commitment into every game.