Nine-man Worle put in an impressive performance to come away with a 3-1 win over 10-man Clevedon United, inflicting their local rivals to their first defeat of the season on Tuesday.

Worle were dealt a couple of blows in the morning of the match with two players having to self-isolate and manager Ben Dancey being taken into hospital on Christmas day with both Barry Flynn and Ash White taking over for the day.

The hosts started well and inside the first 10 minutes created a few chances including the dangerous Aleksey Enchev, who despite being one-on-one with James Dunn could not get his shot away as the chances came and went.

Worle were left to rue their missed chances as they opened the scoring in their first breakaway through Jack Throne's composed finish past David Purkis as they looked to make it 16 games unbeaten.

Clevedon then stepped up the pressure and Purkis had to be at his best to keep the lead down to the single goal.

However, Worle who pushed forward and Enchev was put through again. This time he made no mistake and drew the scores level.

It was the hosts that forged ahead when they were awarded a free-kick around 18 yards out.

Ryan Hodrien saw his free-kick cannon off the wall but showed great reactions to strike home on the volley to find the corner of the goal to move Worle 2-1 ahead.

Worle then lost Ryan Bell-Langford to two yellow cards and were reduced to 10-men but with a reshuffle they managed to contain the away attack.

Dancey's side were then reduced to nine-men when Jack Hodrien received a straight red in a scuffle between the teams.

At this point Worle feared the worse but United were reduced to 10-men red when Sam Dewfal was sent-off for a reckless challenge.

Worle sealed all three points when a breakaway from Chris Taylor ran the ball into an open net to maintain their good run of two defeats in nine league games to rise to 10th in the Somerset Premier League.

Worle return to action on January 3 when they host Nailsea & Tickenham at 2pm.