The unofficial archives of Tiverton Town Football Club
Taunton Town 3 - 1 Tiverton TownMonday 03/01/2022 Southern League Premier Division | Tivvy Archive |
Ahead of the New Year derby, Taunton manager Rob Dray was prescient in his pre-match comments, noting that the winner of the fixture would be the team who makes fewer mistakes. While that may sound blindingly obvious, his words would have been seen and noted by the players, and maybe it was Dray’s attempt to get into the heads of the Tiverton players, as he sought to carve out a small advantage for his own team. Certainly, it was to prevail, and Tiverton were left to rue their own sloppiness which handed the Peacocks a relatively smooth passage through the afternoon and towards three points. By and large, the performance from the Yellows was not at all bad, and for extended periods they matched Taunton in the midfield without creating much, but there is little benefit in such exulted effort if careless is allowed to rear its head, and if that carelessness is so effectively punished in the way the Somerset side did. Taunton gave an indication of their ruthlessness when the took the lead after just five minutes. With Will Buse having saved comfortably from an acrobatic Gary Warren volley, he instigated the forward momentum as Taunton attacked down the right. Ollie Chamberlain was able to move past Austen Booth, and when his cross found Toby Holmes in the box, there was little urgency to close down by Joe Belsten, allowing the Peacocks’ forward enough time and space to spin and shoot low beyond Lewis Williams. The moment Chamberlain crossed the ball, only two Tivvy players were inside the penalty area, up against three attackers. Warren had yet to recover from his foray upfield, Woodman and Louis Morison were also ambling back, as was Dan Hayfield, leaving Belsten and Aaron Dawson outnumbered in the middle in what was frankly a mash of disorganisation. Good teams punish such laxity, and Taunton are a good team. Jared Lewington came close to extending the home side’s advantage, forcing Williams into a flying save with a shot from distance, and it was not long before Taunton’s reward for their early dominance was rewarded with a second goal. Lewington poked the ball past the sliding Hayfield, squeezed between the converging Dawson and Warren, and cross for Ross Stearn to hammer the ball home from close range, past the hapless and helpless Booth and Belsten on the line. At this stage there was the threat of total embarrassment, and while that didn’t materialise, Taunton may well have grabbed another before the half time whistle. Holmes headed against the underside of the bar from a right-sided corner which Williams flapped at, with Woodman in the right play to hook the ball off the line; Dawson was also in the thick of the defensive action, making a crucial interception to deny Lewington. Early in the second half Tiverton were provided a path back into the match when Jordan Lam went down under the challenge of Ioan Richards as they both looked to latch onto a long ball out of defence pumped through by Alfie Pond. Morison converted the penalty awarded as a result of the foul, and this goal certainly got Tivvy’s peckers up a bit. Buse was alert and agile as he then threw himself off to his left to clutch onto a low Hayfield shot from the edge of the area, as hope began to spring for the Yellows. Alas! It was not to be and having rode through the pressure for fifteen minutes of so, Taunton were again the beneficiaries of Tiverton’s negligence. Again, Booth was at the heart of the defensive frailty, with his sideways pass cut out by Chamberlain on the half way line. Once more, the Tiverton defence was high and sparse, and Stearn quickly fed the ball back to Chamberlain as the midfielder ran into the space unoccupied by any yellow shirt. Both chased but the lack of an attempted tackle allowed Chamberlain to advance into the area and slide a shot across Williams and into the far corner. With more than half an hour still to play there remained time enough for a stirring comeback; there also remained time for Taunton to go on a late rampage should the opportunities present themselves. To their credit Tivvy didn’t lose heart and put in a decent effort in the latter stages of the game. Buse saved brilliantly from a sweetly struck Hayfield volley, substitutes combined by Matt Wright could only head over the top from Nelson Iseguan’s cross, and Warren met Kyle Egan’s cross at the back stick only to head the ball straight into the goalkeepers arms. And Buse was just about able to deal with a mis-hit cross from Belsten which looped goalwards and very nearly lucked inside the upright. Sadly for Tivvy that was the limit of the capabilities, and the points were destined to stay in Taunton as the hosts saw out the game and almost grabber a fourth when Dan Sullivan wriggled his way into space before firing a shot just over the crossbar. Rob Dray was spot on: mistakes cost games. Taunton Town: Will Buse, Jay Foulston, Nick Grimes, Jake Wannell, Ollie Chamberlain, Lloyd James, Toby Holmes (Dan Sullivan 81), Joe Guest, Ross Stearn (Zac Smith 76), Jared Lewington (Gethyn Hill 76), Ioan Richards Tiverton Town: Lewis Williams, Kyle Egan, Craig Woodman (Owen Howe 63), Aaron Dawson, Gary Warren, Alfie Pond, Louis Morison (Matt Wright 63), Dan Hayfield, Jordan Lam, Olaf Koszela (Nelson Iseguan 63), Joe Belsten Attendance: 1,473 |
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