TIVVY ARCHIVE

Tiverton Town 2 - 0 Weston-super-Mare

The air of cautious optimism that had filled Ladysmead after the opening two preseason friendlies was maintained on Friday evening as Tiverton Town eased to victory over a poor Weston-super-Mare side thanks to a brace from Jamie Densham. A goal in each half was more than enough to take the spoils, although the Weston goal lead a charmed life and three times the visitors were saved by the woodwork.

As early as the third minute Densham showed a hunger to open his account but having raced onto a crisp pass from Mark Saunders the frontman could only blast his shot a yard or two over the crossbar. With Weston struggling to get any meaningful possession it wasn’t long before Densham did get the ball in the back of the net, and again the chance was instigated by Saunders. The veteran midfielder slid a pass to Glenn Gould and he in turn moved the ball quickly on to Densham. With the blue-clad defence opened up and exploited Densham had an easy task of placing the ball beyond Ryan Northmore.

It was one-way traffic throughout, and both Gould and Bobby Hopkinson shot wide of the target, while a flowing move from one end of the pitch to the other was only snuffed out at the last minute, Gould overweighting the final pass into the area having come under pressure from Jason Burt. A few minutes before the interval Hopkinson came within inches of doubling Tiverton’s lead but saw his powerful effort crash against the post with Northmore grasping at air. The ball rebounded across the face of goal and Tom Knighton was unable to sort his feet out and could only divert it onto the crossbar from six yards

The second period served up more of the same, and it wasn’t until the last minute of the game that Weston finally mustered a shot on target – a weak effort from Ashan Holgate that barely troubled debutant goalkeeper Chris Wright. In the meantime Knighton twice went close for Tivvy, once having turned Mark McGregor inside out, and shortly afterwards having picked up on the ball after Densham was tackled by Mark Armstrong.

Densham grabbed his second of the game fifteen minutes from time, bouncing the ball over substitute goalkeeper Luke Purnell after a fine cross from wide on the right by Knighton, and Mike Booth, continuing his return from a cruciate ligament injury looked on as his powerful 30 yard effort brought the frame of Purnell’s goal back into the thick of the action.

Holgate shot wide at the other end, and Densham was denied a hat-trick when Purnell acrobatically tipped a shot over the top shortly before being withdrawn from the action. The normal host of substitutions failed to disrupt the balance of play as Tivvy cantered through to the full-time whistle and a victory that will give them a great deal of confidence as the pre-season schedule unfolds.

Tiverton Town: Chris Wright; Adam Faux (Raif Gwyinett 80), Chris Vinnicombe (Adam Kelly 84), Matt Villis (Tom Gardner 69), Nathan Rudge, Arran Pugh, Glenn Gould, Bobby Hopkinson (Mike Booth 69), Jamie Densham (Ashley Barker 84), Mark Saunders (Alex Faux 80), Tom Knighton
Goals: Densham 8, 75

Weston-super-Mare: Ryan Northmore (Luke Purnell 46); Mark Armstrong, Ben Willshere, Mike Green, Andt Gurney, Jason Burt, Dave Thorne (Dean Grubb 57), Ben Carpenter (Marvin Brown 46), Ryan Havard (Mark McGregor 64), Ashan Holgate, Mark McKeever (James Palmer 64)

Attendance: 182