Paulton Rovers put in arguably the performance of the season with a fine victory against promotion-hunting Moneyfields.
With Jamie Laird absent, Rovers went with a 3-5-2 formation that hit the right tone straight from the off, creating a handful of chances in the opening twenty minutes.
After just two minutes, cries of handball went up from the Paulton front line, as Malpas’ shot struck the arm of a Moneyfields defender in the box, but a lenient referee waved away the claims. Minutes later, it was Tippins with a free-kick from 25 yards out that whistled inches over the bar, with Mowthorpe scrambling.
With Withey’s master trickery down the right, the chances kept on flowing for Rovers, and when both Monelle and Ball could have put the game to bed for Rovers, danger struck at the opposing end, when a well-worked move by Moneyfields left the goal gaping for striker, Sam Pearce, but the striker unexplainably shot over the bar when it looked easier to score.
Moneyfields came out fighting straight away in the second half, and almost caught Forster out by shooting direct from the kick-off, and then the young Rovers keeper saved well from the useful Rowlatt in the 51st minute.
In the seventieth minute, Rovers were forced to play with ten men for a period following a dangerous tackle by Poate on Monelle’s head. The centre-half only saw yellow, but with Monelle receiving treatment on the sidelines, Rovers got the breakthrough they thoroughly deserved in the 75th minute, when Sam Jordan was put through on-goal down the right side of the penalty area.
The frontman moved the ball onto his right foot and hit a lethal finish into the bottom corner of the goal. As the Rovers crowd roared in celebration, Jordan followed up his acrobatic celebration at Melksham with an equally impressive ‘worm’ to the corner flag!
Against a team vying for promotion, Rovers knew the pressure would come in the closing stages from Moneyfields – and it duly did. However, with a Rovers backline that has now only conceded one goal in the last four games, along with goalkeeper, Adam Forster, commanding the penalty with a series of fantastic claims, it wasn’t to be for the away side, leaving Rovers to deservedly claim all three points when the referee finally blew the whistle in the 97th minute.
Steve Longden