Keynsham Town 1-0 Paulton Rovers Feb 17

Keynsham Town 1-0 Paulton Rovers
Somerset Premier Cup Quarter Finals
AJN Stadium
21/02/17

Keynsham managed to over come higher league opposition to make it into the semi finals of the Somerset Premier cup. Their opponents were Tony Ricketts’ Paulton Rovers side who play in the Southern League Div One.

Paulton fielded a weakened team but it still included around 9 first team players and a large following from Paulton came down to see this one.

Unfortunately my notes on the game weren’t saved on my phone, back to pen and paper next time, so I can only comment generally on the game and from memory.

The game started slowly with Keynsham defending deep and trying to break Paulton on the counter. There were times when the Paulton midfield would worry the Keynsham back four but they defended well in numbers to snuff out the danger.

Keynsham’s break through came on 16 minutes when Ben Harris was found on the right hand side. The winger took the ball inside his full back ran past another challenge to release an unstoppable shot from around 25 yards, leaving the goal keeper stranded.

Just before half time the scores should have been level when Nathan Legg was fouled in the area. Tony Ricketts’ son Jordan stepped up but his penalty was a soft one with Ashley Wintle pulling off a smart stop with his feet.

Paulton had the higher skill levels individually with players like Elliot Gibbons and Ricketts. However Keynsham frustrated them with their game plan of defending as a unit. The collective mass was marshalled by the fresh Rob Sheriton, who was just a substitute last Friday night, sitting in front of the back four.

The fresh substitutes who came on in the second half for Paulton were the spark that the visitors needed, but the form of Jordan Anstey and Jason Adams kept him shooting from distance. Wintle was definitely the busier of the two goal keepers with Kailan Gould testing him in the second half with Keynsham being limited to a counter attacking game.

When Wintle was beaten with just a few moments remaining Sol Wheatly’s effort from range clipped the top of the bar.

This was a real team effort from Keynsham and everyone involved with the club can be very pleased with this marked improvement overall this season. The man management and coaching of Chris King and his team is exceptional and it makes you think how well would they do if they were at a club with money behind them.

A crowning achievement of this praise will be if they can get promoted and they could still win the league outright if games go their way.

You May Also Like