TIVVY ARCHIVE

Tiverton Town 2 - 2 Wimborne Town

To focus on the recent positives, the Yellows have now lost just once in their last eleven matches which is a statistic more than worthy of mentioning. Unfortunately though, during that spell only five wins have been recorded and the strangle-hold the Yellows had at the top of the Premier South has dwindled away and they now trail first place Truro City by nine points. The latest draw saw the Yellows fall behind as early as the fifth minute as Tony Lee struck before Ryan Beckinsale thumped home his first ever Tivvy goal on sixteen to draw the sides level. The parity lasted barely two minutes though as Sam Davidson headed home a corner before the scoring for the afternoon was completed on thirty-two minutes and the Yellows were back level again as Alex Fletcher headed home a Chris Shephard centre.

The Yellows began exactly, personnel wise, as they had at the start of the two-nil win over Hartley Wintney last time out as they were without River Allen, who sat out the second of his three match ban and Noah Smerdon, who is still some way off a return, while the Magpies made three changes to the side that had lost five-nil at Weston-super-Mare in midweek as Penny, Pettefer and Young replaced Byrne, Makhloufi and Bayston, all of whom were named amongst the visitors substitutes while the Yellows bench included the fit again striker Levi Landricombe.

The fact that the match actually went ahead was not far short of miraculous after the weather in the days prior had been poor to say the least. It had clearly taken its toll on the Ladysmead surface and subsequently the quality of the football suffered as a result the longer the match went on but both sides must be given huge amounts of credit for at least trying. It was the visitors that struck first as Tony Lee, he that had scored four times in fifteen appearances back in 2015 for the Yellows, found himself with space inside the Yellows box after Burbidge had found him and he fired left-footed past Williams after just five minutes.

Back came the hosts though and Key almost forced home the equaliser from a Jordan Bastin cross before they eventually got themselves back on terms as Beckinsale thumped home from close range for his first ever Tivvy goal on sixteen minutes after full back Kyle Egan and Key had worked their way down the Yellows right and Egan had tiptoed his way into the Wimborne box. Barely two minutes later though the Magpies were back in front again as a wind-assisted corner caught out Lewis Williams and giant centre half Sam Davidson nodded home probably the simplest goal he`s likely to have scored.

Fletcher had scored in the three previous matches before this one, two of which ended in two-all draws and he nodded home for the fourth match in a row for his eighth goal in ten appearances just after half an hour had been played when he escaped his marker to get on the end of a pin-point Shephard delivery from the right and it seemed like only a matter of time before the Yellows scored again before the interval, George Nanacekivell flashed a long range effort inches wide and Magpies keeper Cameron Plain did well to deny Fletcher a second but alas, there would be no more goals.

The longer the match wore on the more Wimborne seemed happy to try to soak up Yellows pressure and catch them on the break but neither side were able to muster any real moments of note as the conditions took their toll. Next up for the Yellows is a trip to play-off rivals Swindon Supermarine who leap-frogged the Yellows into third place after beating Farnborough.

Tiverton Town: Lewis Williams, Kyle Egan, George Nancekivell, Steve Colwell (Billy Craske 64), Michael Landricombe, Jordan Dyer, Josh Key, Ryan Beckinsale, Alex Fletcher, Jordan Bastin (Levi Landricombe 86), Chris Shephard (Tyler Elliott 78).
Goals: Beckinsale 16, Fletcher 32

Attendance: 301