Paulton conceded a three goal lead to lose in extra time to a physical Odd Down side who were lucky to finish the game with ten men.

Rovers went ahead after eight minutes when Nick Johnson split the ‘Downer’s’ defence for Tom Plummer to slot the ball home.

They continued to play flowing football and the second goal came after eighteen minutes, with a move started by striker, Rhys Cook, who played a neat one two with Justin Dowling, for Cook to slide past keeper, Josh Farnham.

Steve Helliwell misdirected his header as he looked certain to reduce the deficit.

Cook was unlucky to turn and hit the post on 21 minutes and he began to be on the end of several fouls that went unpunished.

However, a minute later and Cook had made it 3–0. Plummer, deep on the right wing, crossed for Dowling to nod down into Cook’s path to thump the ball into the net.

Rovers seemed to sit back and Odd Down pressed forward and pulled a goal back in the 27th minute as Kyle Norris latched onto the ball and hit a low drive past Paulton keeper, Simon Callaghan.

With three minutes of the half left, Odd Down further reduced the arrears with a long ball from Chris Billett which looked to have been cut out by Rovers defender, Tony Bennett, who slipped allowing Norris to run on and grab his second goal.

At the start of the second half, Helliwell was narrowly wide from Norris’s cross.

On 59 minutes, Justin Dowling tried an overhead kick, which smacked the junction of post and cross bar with the keeper well beaten.

The referee finally punished several very poor tackles, with Dan Scott and Norris shown yellow cards. With fifteen minutes left, Cook again hit the post whilst at the other end, Callaghan made a fine save from Alan Williams. On 84 minutes, Cook outpaced the defence and laid the ball to Dan Baber, who, faced with an open goal, managed to fire high and wide.

From the restart, Odd Down broke and Scott, who was lucky to still be on the pitch, turned and drove a fierce shot past Callaghan to take the game into extra time.

It was end to end stuff and Billett was booked in the 108th minute for a foul on Cook, then a few minutes later, he pulled the striker down as he bore down on goal to be dismissed.

A minute later Norris broke through the Rovers’ defence and was brought down by Callaghan, converting the resultant penalty to make it 4–3 and complete his hat-trick.

In the dying embers man of the match Norris added further misery for Paulton by curling a fine shot past Callaghan to complete the 5–3 score line.

Tony Walsh