RADSTOCK TOWN 7 CORSHAM TOWN 2
Radstock’s first home League game of the season saw the Miners turn in a stunning attacking display and smash seven past a shell-shocked Corsham side.
The win may have come as a surprise to those outside the club, but it certainly wasn’t to home supporters, who have been predicting that this group of players were special, and that it was only a matter of time before they gave some team a real hiding!
No one really expected it to be Corsham, though, as they arrived at Southfield as one of the title favourites after finishing third last season and winning their opening game last Saturday. However, they were behind after just three minutes when Morgan Skipp converted a Jack Biddescombe cross, and they found themselves further behind on eight minutes when Biddescombe turned scorer, drilling an unstoppable twenty-yard effort past Mark Billingsley in the visiting goal.
The Miners went further ahead on the half-hour, when Sam Gregory latched onto a long clearance out of defence and confidently guided the ball over the head of the advancing keeper, before the visitors gave themselves a glimmer of hope when Josh Bright made the most of a moment of indecision in the home defence to reduce the arrears just before half-time.
Leading at the break 3-1, the home side expected a reaction from the visitors in the second half, but the Miners were in no mood to surrender the points and pressed forward at every opportunity, and it came as no surprise when James Rustell increased the lead, slotting home a Morgan Marsh cross on the hour. He scored his second and Radstock’s fifth ten minutes later, when he drove the ball past the full-stretch keeper from the edge of the box.
The game wasn’t all one-way, though, and the visitors made the score look a little more respectable when Jamal Chevolleau headed in a far-post free-kick, but their slim hopes of salvaging something from the match were snuffed out when centre-half, Scott Gregory, found himself unmarked at the back post to head home a Marsh cross. However, Radstock weren’t finished, and Rustell claimed his hat trick and the Miners’ seventh with a thirty-yard bullet of a shot that smashed onto the underside of the bar, before bouncing over the line and then hitting the top of the net.
An amazing scoreline that could have been more, but credit to Corsham that they didn’t drop their heads and kept going throughout. One win though doesn’t make a season, and Radstock visit Hengrove this Saturday, 17th August, looking for a repeat performance.
John Newport