Paulton Rovers welcomed Portishead Town in the second round of the Roger Stone Memorial Cup. The visitors started the game well, and had large spells of possession. Eventually they found a breakthrough and took the lead thirty minutes into the game through Harry Ford.

Just before half-time, Paulton had a few chances to bring the scores level, and were unfortunate not to score, heading over from close-range and hitting the post.

The home side came out fighting in the second half. However, the visitors found themselves 2-0 up within the first five minutes, after a Paulton clearance rebounded off oncoming striker, Harvey Williams, and went into the net.

However, this didn’t stop Paulton from fighting back, and the home side then started to create more chances and eventually found a breakthrough, with Blaine Lawrence finishing well from close range. He has now scored an impressive fourteen goals in nine games for the club so far this season!

This gave the lads the spirit they needed, and seemed to bring a faster tempo to the game and both sides were playing fast, attacking football. It was Lewis Bond-Kendall who managed to create the equaliser after a threatening cross was deflected into the goal, bringing the scores level, with five minutes to go.

The next minute, ‘Pottis’ found themselves deep inside the Paulton penalty area and squared a ball back for the oncoming striker, Dylan Hebblethwaite, to give the away side what they thought was a ticket to the next round.

In the last minute of play, Paulton were awarded a free-kick and after pushing everyone forward, including the keeper, the ball was delivered into the box by Bond-Kendall and turned home by Christian Gregory, to take the game into extra-time in the dying moments!

Extra-time kicked off, and both teams were looking tired.

The Paulton defence were struggling to deal with the constant counter-attacks from the visiting side and were first to concede – some good build-up play took Portishead back into the lead.

After already coming back twice from being down, the boys did not look unsettled and started to take control of the game. Reece Barry slipped a great through-ball in for Jake Curtis, who finished the ball first-time past the oncoming keeper to equalise before half-time in extra time.

With a lot of players feeling the pressure of the extra game time, it was the fresh legs of the substitutes that were looking most dangerous for Paulton. However, both sides were still creating chances, and forced some great saves from the keepers at both ends of the pitch.

With only three minutes left and penalties looming, Barry did extremely well down the right wing and managed to deliver a pin-point cross onto the head of Lawrence, who headed the ball home to see Paulton through into the next round of the cup!

Paulton Rovers Youth Team play at home to Chippenham Town U18s on Thursday, 18th October, and are then away to Corsham Town on Thursday, 25th October – both matches kick off at 7.30 p.m.

Josh Hurst