CIRENCESTER TOWN 1 PAULTON ROVERS 1

Paulton went out of the FA trophy on penalties after dominating large parts of the game.

They were awarded a penalty in the fourth minute after Will Hailston outpaced Cirencester’s keeper, Alex Harris, who brought him down, but Hailston’s penalty was saved by Harris.

The host’s first chance was twelve minutes in, as Johnny Dennis crossed from the left and Brad Gray headed wide.

Dennis then had a shot held by Rovers’ keeper, Aaron Sainsbury and in response, Lee Ibrahim had a shot deflected for a corner.

In the 35th minute, Harris violently shoved over Dan Cottle and was shown a red card. His replacement in goal, Josh Nelmes, saved Marcus Day’s spot-kick, but Cottle followed up to open the scoring.

A long clearance from Nelmes sent Gray down the right, but his cross evaded the onrushing forwards.

In the opening ten minutes of the second half, Paulton had a number of chances through Ibrahim Nuno Felix, Tom Llewellyn and Marcus Day.

On the hour, Day wriggled through the defence but Nelmes was on hand to hold.

Sainsbury made a great save from Levi Irving, then on seventy-five minutes Cirencester levelled as Gray twisted and turned on the edge of the area to hit a thunderous shot past Sainsbury into the net.

In the dying minutes, Gray crossed for Tom Handley to head wide and then Sainsbury superbly tipped over a header from Gray and from the corner was again alert to save Shayne Anson’s header.

With nervousness of the penalty shoot-out, it was Cirencester who prevailed, scoring 5–4, and heading in to the next round.

Paulton Rovers’ Star Man of the Match was Aaron Sainsbury.

On Saturday, 3rd October the First team are away at Highworth Town, kick-off 3 p.m.

The Reserves won 3–1 on Saturday at home to Glastonbury Reserves, but have no game this weekend.

The Ladies’ First team are away at Ash Rangers, whilst the Reserves are home to Wellington Ladies, both kick-off at 2 p.m.

The Youth team are away on Thursday, 8th October to Corsham Town U-18’s, kick-off at 7.30 p.m.