Toolstation League premier division: Sherborne Town 3, Wellington 0
The Tangerines failed to build on an encouraging first half display as we suffered our third defeat in eight days away to newly promoted Sherborne Town this afternoon (Saturday, August 20th).
We were missing Sam Towler and Nathan Groom, both suspended after being sent off at Helston, while Stefan Phillips and Sully McKenna were unavailable.
But we were able to bring Glen Wright, Mark Cornish and Jack Bown-Porter back into the starting 11 as they looked for a return to form.
There was never much to choose between the sides from the kick-off but the visitors looked more dangerous as the half progressed.
Our best effort came from young midfielder Eli Collins who skipped past three or four players before sending in a low drive which had Sherborne keeper Josh Attwood at full stretch to push the ball round the post.
With the teams locked together at the break, the opening goal was always going to be important and it was the home side who made the breakthrough after 58 minutes.
Some neat play down the left ended with a low cross reaching the far post where it was turned home by Alex Murphy.
We failed failed to get into our stride in the second half and rarely threatened the Sherborne goal before falling further behind in the 68th minute.
After Dec Cornish had missed a sitter to make it 2-0, Murphy showed him the way almost immediately as he pounced on a mistake to net.
In a game of few chances, Sherborne then rubbed salt into our wounds with a third goal in the dying minutes.
Young keeper Charlie Hawkings parried away a fiercely-driven free kick and sub Brett Cotterill headed home the rebound.
Wellington: Charlie Hawkings, Michael Murphy, Tom Stone, Jason Quick, Mark Cornish, Glen Wright, Miles Quick, Eli Collins, Jack Bown-Porter, Jamie Nicholson, Jake Quick. Substitutes: Alex Cherry and Tim Legg (used); Chris Ormerod and Alex Pope (not used).
At least we now have a chance to regroup after a busy start to the season – there’s no midweek fixture and so next up is a trip to Clevedon Town next Saturday (August 27th).
