WARMINSTER TOWN 1 RADSTOCK TOWN 2

This was always going to be a difficult trip for the visitors, which wasn’t made any easier through suspensions, unavailability and injury, but the players who pulled on the Miners shirt on Saturday turned in a battling performance that was certainly worthy of the three points.

On a difficult surface, the visitors opened brightly, playing their intricate passing game and could have gone ahead as early as the fifth minute, but James Rustell just failed to get a touch onto a Rico Sobers pass. However, he did get his head to a Morgan Skipp cross on twelve minutes to nod the ball past the stranded Nathan Ball in the home goal.

That reverse stung the home side into action and they threatened on a number of occasions, but found the visitors’ defence in a resolute mood. That was until the 31st minute, when a lapse of concentration allowed James Vincent to find some space just inside the box and smash the ball past Jack Scrivens.

With both sides creating chances and the game flowing from end to end, the 1–1 half-time score-line was probably fair.

The 152 crowd members were anticipating more of the same in the second period. Unfortunately, the uneven surface was making a passing game very difficult, and the over officious referee meant that the quality of play didn’t quite live up to expectations!

Warminster brought on Francois Allen at half-time to liven up their attacking options and he almost put the home side in front, but his goal-bound drive was brilliantly turned over the bar by a flying Jack Scrivens.

The Miners went ahead fifteen minutes into the half when Morgan Skipp was left unmarked at the back post to turn in a James Rustell cross. It could have gone further ahead, but efforts from Rustell and Rico Sobers were easily dealt with by Ball as they dominated play following the goal.

However, the game turned fifteen minutes from the end when the referee dismissed Radstock full-back, George Walker-Wiltshire, for a second yellow. To compensate for going down to ten, the management team made a number of substitutions and shuffled the formation, which allowed them to limit the home side’s attacking threat and, in fact, they could have increased their lead in the later stages of the game when a breakaway saw Rico Sobers’ effort just drift over the bar, with Ball stranded.

Warminster threw everything at the visitors in the closing stages, and every one of the Radstock players put in a real shift to ensure the unbeaten run continued – a job well done and another step towards promotion.