Timsbury Athletic belied their lowly position in the Somerset County League Division 1 East against second in the table Larkhall Athletic Reserves and came within minutes of creating a major shock. The visitors dominated the first half and could have been out of sight by the interval, but they only had the one goal to show for their efforts and two early second half strikes from Jack Nix turned the game on its head.
Larkhall were ahead as early as the fifth minute when an inswinging corner from the influential Callum Elms caused mayhem in the home area and somehow found its way into the net. Joe Hallett then hooked over the top defending for Timsbury and Jaiden Savery hit the bar for the visitors after another dangerous long throw from Elms. In Timsbury’s one real moment of threat in the first half, Jonathan Book, in the Larkhall goal, saved from Mark Hancock, who had been put through by Seb Nix. As Larkhall kept up the pressure, Ashley Robinson headed just wide, Ben Paisey saved from an Elms free-kick and Lewis Russell shot past the post.
Early in the second half, Timsbury were level. After being awarded a free-kick just outside the box, Nix hit a fine shot past Book. Within three minutes, another free-kick was taken by Nix and after his effort was easily blocked, he picked up the rebound and hammered a tremendous shot past Book. As Larkhall tried to hit back, Robinson was wide of the post and Paisey saved another Elms free-kick. Substitute, Ebner Heatley, had a clear chance to increase Timsbury’s lead, but shot wide, while Paisey made a crucial save from Andrew Keen. With six minutes left, Elms found space on the edge of the Timsbury box and hit a crisp shot low into the Timsbury net.
Malcolm Tucker