Timsbury Athletic returned to action after a weather-enforced, short winter break, entertaining Brislington Reserves at the Rec.
A minute's silence was observed before the game for Somerset official, Keith Buller, who sadly passed away during the week. Timsbury continued their fine pre-Christmas form with a convincing 3–0 victory against a stubborn Brislington team. Timsbury started the game strongly, with the lively Will Hailston bringing good saves from Nick Yeo in the Brislington goal.
On a heavy pitch, it was difficult for both sides to play fluent football. It took until the tenth minute before a shot from Mitch Ashmead troubled Paisey in the Timsbury goal. Timsbury responded when a good run from Will Halstead ended with a cross ball to Ross Padfield, whose resultant shot was deflected for a corner, when destined for the back of the net. Both sides struggled to come to terms with the conditions. Brislington always looked strong on the break and James Griffiths was unlucky not to break the deadlock after thirty minutes with a fine run and shot, which ended just wide. Griffiths went even closer five minutes later, when he latched on to a loose ball following a corner which hit the bar, with Paisey in the Timsbury goal well beaten. Brislington continued to press, but the Timsbury defence stood firm and the half ended in stalemate.
Within a minute of the restart, Timsbury broke the dead- lock. Will Hailston, the orchestrator of most of the first half efforts on goal, picked the ball up in midfield, before running at the defence and then firing past Yeo from just inside the area. Timsbury doubled the lead five minutes later, when a fine run from Joe Parker, on the right, resulted in a cross to the far post, where Jim Hailston managed to get the final touch.
To their credit, Brislington continued to press for a goal back and looked dangerous on the break, with both Ben Winter Alsop and Mitch Ashmead bringing fine saves from Paisey. As the half progressed, Timsbury's physical presence began to tell and apart from a few late efforts, Paisey was not troubled again in the Timsbury goal.
With the clock running down, Ellis Hancock capped a fine personal performance with the third goal, when Jim Halstead won the ball on the left and fed it along the eighteen yard line for him to round the final defender and fire a left-foot shot into the top corner, giving the visitors only their second league defeat of the season so far.