YATE TOWN 3 PAULTON ROVERS 0

On a tough afternoon for Rovers, Yate Town went top of the table with a 3-0 victory.

It was the home side who started the game the brighter, and it was striker, Mehew, who got in on the Rovers goal in the third minute, but Forster was equal to it with a regulation save.

Rovers front pairing of Sam Jordan and Jack Ball were linking up well together and when Jordan got up well in the seventeenth minute to flick on Forster’s clearance – Ball was inches away from the knock-down to get in on-goal. Forster again had to be at his best on the 33rd minute, when his acrobatic save denied a powerful hit by Price.

With half-time approaching, Rovers had a golden chance to take the lead when Lewis Dix floated in a pinpoint cross to Jordan at the back post. The frontman rose like a salmon, but his flick-header flashed wide of the post. Playing eight minutes of added time in the first half due to an injured linesman, Yate got the breakthrough in the sixth added minute, when Nick Peare squared the ball across the goal for Bryant to tap in from close-range.

Early in the second half, Rovers responded well, and had a great chance to get on level terms when Jordan took the ball down beautifully at the back-post to beat the defender, but his near-post shot was parried away by Grimshaw in goal.

Rovers continued to press forward for the equaliser with a series of corners and set-pieces, but the killer blow came for Rovers in the 68th minute, when Peare started off a counter for Yate setting Sims-Burgess free, who slotted under Forster to make it 2-0.

From then on, it was always going to be an uphill battle for Rovers to get back in the game, and despite best efforts, the game was well and truly killed off when, again on the counter, Mehew weaved his way through the Rovers defence to round Forster and roll the ball home into the empty net.

The First Team are without a game this Saturday (30th March), and are then away at Larkhall Athletic on Saturday, 6th April.

The Youth Team are at home to Wells City on Thursday, 4th April, and then away at Winscombe on Tuesday, 9th April; both kick-off at 7.30 p.m. in the Somerset Floodlit Supplementary League.

Steve Longden and Tony Walsh