The unofficial archives of Tiverton Town Football Club
Clevedon Town 3 - 0 Tiverton TownTuesday 23/11/2010 Southern League Cup | Tivvy Archive |
Three days is a long time in football but not long enough to turn around the fortunes of a team low on confidence and even lower on goals. Chris Vinnicombe had gone, Jamie Densham too, and after a humbling at the hands of struggling Clevedon Perry Carpenter would follow. There was a new face in Yellow as Ryan Turner arrived from Barnstaple Town, and Colin Marshall was also back but had to be content with a place on the bench as Mark Saunders stepped into the role of caretaker manager for the evening. Saunders might well have been wondering why he bothered when midway through the second half Clevedon scored their third goal to guarantee a place in the Third Round of the League Cup, and despite their lowly position in a Division one place below Tiverton it was the home side that impressed. They were quick in attack, versatile and easy on the eye, and on the performance they delivered one must wonder why on earth they are threatened with relegation back to the Western League. It took until the 34th minute for Clevedon to break the deadlock as up until then both sides had struggled to come to terms with a tricky pitch. In fact Clevedon forward Chas Hemmings took the struggles to a whole new level when he blundered an open goal after quarter of an hour, capitalising on a mistake from Ryan Draper and then planting his shot from twelve yards wide of the post. Hemmings was unchallenged, central and his miss left even the Clevedon management team in raptures of laughter, such was the complete ineptitude the striker showed. For Tiverton Liam Ellis went close when his cross from the right evaded everyone and rolled a matter of inches the wrong side of the far post, and later he had a powerful effort blocked, but Clevedon then took the lead through Matt Thorne. Picking up on a weak clearance from Jordan Trott, Thorne cut inside and curled a sumptuous lob into the far corner leaving Draper with no chance. Hemmings almost doubled the lead on the stroke of half time but Draper saved with his legs at the near post, and Tiverton were still in the game. Tiverton were just about out of the game three minutes after the restart when Draper was unable to gather in a low cross from the right and James Keohane had the easy task of tapping the ball home from close range. By this stage Marshall had entered the fray in place of the off-colour Trott, and the returning midfielder almost single-handedly gave Tivvy a fighting chance as he drove forward relentlessly, opened up the play with intelligent cross-field balls, threaded passes that left the Clevedon defenders on their heels and jinked over challenges in a style akin to his legendary countryman Jimmy Johnstone. But one man doesn’t make a team and when Clevedon had the ball they remained a threat. So much so in fact that with 25 minutes remaining the result was settled when Lewis Ellis cut it from his berth on the left wing and produced a carbon-copy of Throne’s earlier goal, a curling shot just as sumptuous, and rooted Draper just as helpless. To their credit Tiverton didn’t stop trying despite the hammering they had received, and twice Turner could have pulled a goal back. His first shot went straight at Jason Mellor in the Seasiders’ goal, his second was blocked at close quarters after Adam Mortimer had robbed Mellor on the edge of the area and pulled the ball back for the young striker. That second chance, which arrived just six minutes from the end, really should have been tucked away but Mortimer was unable to get the ball fully under control after dispossessing the goalkeeper, and the eventual blocked shot was an accurate snapshot of Tivvy’s lack of cutting edge and lack of luck. In the final minute Mellor tipped over a header from Mortimer, not dissimilar to the save made by Jakub Jesionkowski three days earlier and Tiverton made the shot trip home having fired another blank. Clevedon Town: Jason Mellor, Lloyd Mills, Matt Townley, Jamie Adams (Kyle O'Donovan 76), Steve Kingdon, Sam Teale, Lewis Ellis (Joe Flurry 86), Matt Thorne, Chas Hemmings (Jonny Moss 80), James Keohane, Patrick Hoban Goals: Thorne 34, Keohane 48, Ellis 66 Booked: None Sent off: None Tiverton Town: Ryan Draper, Liam Ellis, Jordan Trott (Colin Marshall 46), Russell Jee (David Steele 69), Jak Martin, Tom Gardner, Perry Carpenter, Kevin Hill, Ryan Turner, Adam Mortimer, Alex Faux Booked: None Sent off: None Attendance: 88 |
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