Ashton & Backwell United gave an excellent defensive performance against Shepton Mallet in this cup tie, before losing to their Toolstation Premier League opponents.
Ashton & Backwell 1
Shepton Mallet 3
For this Les Phillips League Cup tie, Ashton & Backwell, 20th in Division 1, faced a Shepton Mallet side sitting sixth in the Premier League.
Shepton took the lead after seven minutes when a fierce shot was parried by home keeper Lewis Coombes, but fell to Morgan, who gave his side the lead. The visitors doubled their lead just before the break.
On 74 minutes, Sam Skidmore’s run won the Stags their first corner of the half. Substitute Harry Walker’s inswinging corner beat Easterbrook all ends up to halve the deficit.
Finally, with 10 minutes left from a Shepton corner, Coombes’ strong punch took the ball well out of his area, but it was returned from 30 yards out for a delightful goal into the top corner.
From the Stags perspective the defensive performance is well worthy of praise. The back four had not played together before, yet Bishop, Sollars, Coombes and Biggins closed down, tackled and chased for everything, while keeper Lewis Coombes was in fine form.
This quintet had support from the others, with Conor Saunders particularly robust. Up front, Conor Biggins, Sam Skidmore, Aaron Allen, Bill Devoy, Harry Walker and Miles Hardidge all stretched the visitor’s defence.
Next Stags action is away at Roman Glass St George tonight (Wed). The next home game promises to be an entertaining derby against newly-promoted Bristol Telephones on Saturday (3pm).
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here