Paulton welcomed Premier side, Weston-super-Mare to Winterfield in the Roger Stone Memorial Cup.

The game got off to a fast start, both teams playing high tempo football. With just ten minutes played, Weston took the lead when Ollie Southwell forced a great save from Sean Salter, only to see the ball fall back into the path of Callum Eastwood, who made no mistake in finding the net.

With Weston moving the ball well, Paulton absorbed more pressure and tried to catch Weston on the break, Jake Curtis playing a great ball through for Ali Sen, who had the chance to equalise, only to see his ef- fort go over the bar.

Paulton continued to soak up pressure, defending very well and had another chance to equalise five min- utes before half-time, Ali Sen unlucky to see his effort go over the bar after doing well, twisting and turning his way through the box.

Just before the break, Weston doubled their lead through Callum Eastwood, who headed home from close range after some fan- tastic individual effort from Ollie Southwell on the right wing.

The second half didn’t disappoint, with both teams still playing some very high

quality football.

Rovers centre back, Harvey Lawrence, came off with a head injury and not long after, Weston found the breakthrough again; this time, Kieran McDowell get- ting onto the end of a loose ball in the box and smash- ing it into the net.

Another goal soon fol- lowed, as Ollie Southwell this time scored one of his own as he found himself un- marked in the box from a corner and headed the ball in with no hesitation.

Paulton continued to fight back and created some good chances to get back into the game, another op- portunity fell to Ali Sen when Archie Blacker played a fantastic reverse ball into the Paulton striker; this time, the visiting goal- keeper doing well to keep the ball out of the net.

With Rovers pushing for goals, the game became more wide open and it was Ollie Southwell who took advantage of this, scoring a fantastic solo effort, round- ing defenders and the goal- keeper before slotting the ball into the net.

With the game looking out of sight, Paulton gam- bled on getting numbers for-

ward and were successful in pulling a goal back after the visiting goalkeeper kicked the ball into the back of one of his defenders, leaving Michael Williams to pounce at the opportunity and slot- ted the ball into an empty net.

Minutes later, a long- range effort from Justin Hall gave the visitors an- other goal after deflecting off a Paulton player, looping about forty foot in the air and dropping in under the crossbar.

Despite the 6–1 shoreline, Paulton did not back down and showed fantastic atti- tude to keep going.

They were rewarded twice in the last five min- utes, with Luke Seviour providing Jake Curtis with the ball for him to finish from inside a crowded box.

Luke Seviour’s left-footed effort on the edge of the box fired straight into the net, giving the boys a smaller glimmer of hope. Unfortunately, it was a little too late and the game ended 6–3.

Credit goes to both teams, who played some great foot- ball on the night and we wish Weston all the best in the next round. Josh Hurst