PAULTON ROVERS U18s 5 CHARD TOWN U18s 4
Paulton remain top of the Somerset Floodlit Youth League Supplementary South Division after five goals in twenty minutes and a last-minute winner.
Rovers went ahead on five minutes, with Tyler Lane crossing for Blaine Lawrence to head the ball home.
On ten minutes, Chard’s first attack forward resulted in a free-kick on the edge of the box, a fine save from Sean Salter in the Paulton goal put the ball out for a corner. Harry Perren took the corner, which was headed home by diminutive striker, Marty Jones.
Two minutes later, another Perren corner was headed into the net, this time by the unmarked Miko Gorski. Paulton had an almost instant response, when Jake Curtis’s cross met Lawrence, for him to chip the ball over the visiting keeper, Owen Searle.
On 23 minutes, Rovers went ahead following a free-kick from Lewis Bond-Kendall, with Lane managing to scramble into the back of the net. Paulton increased the lead on 32 minutes, with Ali Sen finding himself on the end of a Bond-Kendall through-ball to round Searle and make it 4-2.
The second half started off in lacklustre fashion as the rain poured down. Both sides could not string a series of passes together. It wasn’t until the 77th minute when the impressive Chard frontman, Jones, hit a long-drive which went in off the underside of the crossbar.
The away side then levelled seven minutes later, as Jones’ cross was not cleared – left-back Levi Lane turned the ball home from close-range.
Paulton had failed to break down the visiting defence in the second half, up until the 88th minute. Substitute, Will Oborne, played a lovely through-ball into the path of Lane, who turned just inside the box to put the ball on his left and smashed it home off the underside of the bar, with only two minutes left on the clock, to give Paulton all three points.
A fantastic game for the neutral and some great football played by both sides.
Tony Walsh