Western Counties Floodlight Youth League: Wellington U18s 3, Tiverton Town U18s 3

Our Under 18s gained their first point of with season with a hard-fought draw against Tiverton Town at the Playing Field.

With a campaign interrupted by Covid and poor weather, both teams went into the match having last met in October when Tiverton emerged as victors.

Playing downhill in the first half, it took a little time for Wellington to settle into the game. Tiverton exploited the home side’s nervousness and, by 25 minutes, were two goals up.

However, at around the half-hour, mark Wellington moved into top gear and began what would be a match-long battle in the midfield for control of the game which ultimately led to a number of yellow cards on both sides.

This fightback saw Wellington awarded a free kick at the edge of the Tiverton box at around the 35-minute mark and Alfie Hill slotted it into the bottom corner.

This was closely followed by some great work from Josh Sibanda and Will Fevin on the edge of the Tiverton box. The ball eventually landed at the feet of Matt Brereton who slotted it into the net before the half-time whistle.

The second half continued in the same way with Wellington now having a slight upper hand on the game.

Tiverton became frustrated as, despite throwing all they had at the Wellington defence, they struggled to make anything of their chances with Dylan Groves, Cameron Atkinson, Lewis Leslie and Rob Walker making some fantastic interventions. Nevertheless, a goal by the visitors was scored at around the 70-minute mark to give them a 3-2 lead.

Wellington dug in and, despite a second half broken up by a number of stoppages, the home team found themselves on the edge of the Tiverton box with a drop-ball start. This was exploited to the maximum by Callum Chivers who caught Tiverton out and smashed the ball into the net.

Both teams were desperate to win the match, which made for an exciting final ten minutes during which either side could have scored but the match ended in a draw.

Next week, the return match at Tiverton will hopefully see all three points going to Wellington.