Nailsea & Tickenham lost a well-contested match against Shirehampton by the odd goal in five.

Shirehampton 3

Nailsea and Tickenham 2

The Swags travelled to Penpole Lane for what is always a well-contested fixture and Saturday was no different.

Shire started the brighter and prolific striker Scott Bamford robbing the Swags defence and beat Mellor with three minutes on the clock. With 20 minutes played, N&T should have equalised, James Seeley putting the ball wide when clean through.

Within seconds Shire were awarded a penalty for a clumsy tackle on Jordon Whitiker, Bamford again making no mistake from the spot.

N&T came out of the blocks straight from the restart, Seeley’s close-range header was well saved by Winkler. Within six minutes Josh Benjamin reduced the arrears from close range after side footing into the corner of the net.

Seeley scored the equaliser seven minutes later and the Swags were now firing on all cylinders. Winkler made some quality saves from Gale and then Seeley.

The next goal was vital for both sides and it fell to Shire, a Storer shot was parried by Mellor and Dan Spicer reacted first to finish.

N&T introduced two youngsters in Jack Sell and Brad Cogan and it was Sell whose long-range effort beat Winkler only to rebound off the post in what may have been a deserved equaliser.

The India cottage man of the match Gary Freeman, pictured with Ali.

The match between Nailsea & Tickenham Reserves and Uphill Castle was unfortunately abandoned after 35 minutes due to a serious injury to N&T’s Chris Corner.

At 0-0, Chris sustained a broken leg and the emergency services took him straight to hospital where he has had an operation. The club would like to thank the numerous well wishers for their kind messages.