Western Counties Floodlit Youth League: Wellington U18s 1, Frome Town 2
Our U18s suffered an agonising defeat by Frome Town at the Playing Field last night (Tuesday, October 11th)
The game started in a disastrous fashion for the Tangerines as a defensive mix-up saw a deflected shot rebound off a Frome striker and into the net despite the best efforts of Matt Harper on the line.
This was a real blow as the goal came within the first three minutes of the match, but Wellington didn’t let their heads drop and started to take the game to Frome.
The back four of James Clarke, Matt Harper, Dylan Groves and Ben Fowler provided an excellent foundation for the team with some tough tackling and they managed to repel the sporadic Frome attacks.
It was the Wellington midfield and forward line who were now starting to exert greater influence on the game and the Frome keeper made a couple of smart saves from long range efforts by Ned Ogilvie and Lenny Old.
Josh Sibanda was now starting to run at the Frome defence and cut through on a number of occasions – only a couple of desperate challenges and some bad luck stopped these becoming clearcut chances.
Wellington were also passing the ball much better, and they managed to get their wingers James King and Sean Conway into the action. The pair provided a number of dangerous crosses which just needed the final touch.
The pressure told just before half-time when a long ball from Ogilvie was headed on by striker Sam Snook, causing confusion in the Frome defence, and the excellent Groves headed home, to the delight of the home team and fans.
The Tangerines nearly hit a quickfire second when another dangerous cross was headed just over by Ogilvie.
The second half was an end-to-end affair with both sides pressing for a winner and Wellington were grateful to keeper Charlie Hawkings, who co-ordinated the defence extremely effectively, for a number of good saves and clearances.
Wellington also had plenty of half chances but just couldn’t get the breakthrough. They brought on three of their subs in Jon Wasey, Matt Brereton and Dylan Sellick to try to get the winner and had a big shout for a penalty turned down following a scramble in the Frome box.
Just as it looked as if the game was going to end in the deserved outcome of a draw, Wellington were cruelly denied their first point of the season.
A Frome breakaway resulted in a corner and, from this, a mis-hit shot ended with the ball looping up into the air and it was nodded home to nick all three points for the away team.
This was a much-improved performance from the team and hopefully the first win is not too far away.
Man-of-the-match: Josh Sibanda.
Match sponsor: AG Plastering.
Food sponsor: The Green Dragon.