Somerset Senior Cup: Nailsea & Tickenham Reserves 1, Wellington Reserves 2
Wellington Reserves had a tricky away game in the Somerset Senior Cup against Nailsea & Tickenham’s second string.
Manager Mark Owen had to reshuffle his team with numerous players unavailable and others being called into the first team squad.
But this gave him the opportunity to call some of the under 18s into the squad for the tie.
The match got off to a lively start with Nailsea creating early chances, but the Wellington back line was outstanding in keeping it all-square.
Wellington started growing into the game, creating all the chances, and Jack Bryant was unlucky not to open the scoring, notably when hitting the bar.
As half-time approached, the ball was played forward and Theo Worth – one of the under 18s called up – collected the ball. He did well to hold off a defender and calmly shot just inside the box past the Nailsea keeper to give Wellington the lead.
Wellington made one substitution at break with Owen coming off and being replaced by Ned Ogilvie but, within ten mins of the restart, they had to make two more enforced changes with Jack Bryant injured and Scott Merritt unwell.
Despite this, Wellington should have increased their lead, but some poor finishing and fine goalkeeping kept the score at 1-0.
With the Tangerines in control of the game, it was a surprise when Nailsea equalised. The ball was played down the left and, when it was played across the field, it broke to the winger who hit a shot which went through a few Wellington legs and across a diving Charlie Hawkings into the bottom corner.
It was a setback for Wellington and, with all the earlier missed chances, it looked as though the tie was heading to penalties.
But, as the game moved into the final minutes, Wellington won a corner and as the ball was fired in Alfie Barrett got his head to it and smashed it past the Nailsea keeper from close range to give a deserved lead back to Wellington.
All that the lads had to do was see out stoppage time, which they did to progress to the next round.
Man-of-the-match was Worth who is pictured (above) with U18s manager Wayne Oaten.
