Scholing 0 Paulton Rovers 2

Right from the kick-off, Paulton were energetic and organised, moving the ball around quickly and not letting Sholing have any time on the ball.

Rovers had the first chance on nine minutes as the Boatmen sat off and allowed a shot from the edge of the area that Gosney had to palm out, with the rebound put over a gaping goal. It was the same on twelve minutes, too much space in the Boatmen final third and Gos had to make a save.

It was no suprise at all when Paulton took a deserved lead on 21 minutes, a mistake at the back allowed Will Harvey to advance and score from the right side of the area. Rovers should have quickly had a second, a pass found their player in acres of space, but he rushed his shot and put it wide.

It took until 25 minutes for Sholing to have their first meaningful attack, Conor Whiteley getting to the byline to cross into the six-yard box where Dan Mason flicked it with his heel, but the keeper dropped to his right to save. Apart from D-Dan shooting over, there was nothing else from the Boatmen going forward apart from some aimless hoofs, as Paulton created several more chances and also hit the base of the post with a free kick.

Normally, Sholing put a bad first half behind them and come out fired up to put it right, but not today, a minute into the second half, Ed Butcher had space and time to fire across Gosney and in off the far post. There was no response from the Boatmen, it was painful to watch as they could barely string two passes together and the frustrations about the performance manifested into petulant clashes with the referee and Paulton players.

Only when Brad Targett came on with 20 minutes to go, did they look something like a threat in the final third, but still they weren’t able to create a serious effort on target. It was one of those games where you just want the final whistle to blow to put you out your misery!

All credit to Paulton Rovers, they played well, lots of energy and movement, knocked it about at pace and all the team were communicating and working for each other. Exactly what Sholing weren’t doing. Harvey and Ibrahim were the stand out players for Paulton, but the whole team got the reward for the effort they put in.

Harrison Read