| Clevedon
Town 3-0 Rugby Town |
| BGB
Premier Division |
Saturday,
9th September 2006
Attendance
| 142
|
Entertainment |
|
The
Valley's run of three games without defeat came
to a conclusive end at Clevedon last Saturday,
with the hosts comfortably recording their first
victory of the season against an uninspiring Rugby
side.
Manager
Billy Jeffrey was forced into the first change
to his line-up in six matches with skipper Craig
Herbert missing the trip due to work commitments.
This meant a recall to the team for long term
injury victim Andy Commander at the heart of the
Valley defence. Despite a near 18 month absence
from first team football, he came through his
return unscathed, coping admirably after such
a lengthy break.
Had
Rugby taken the early chances that came their
way, the end result would have been very different.
In the best move of the first half after just
8 minutes, David Stone broke down the left wing
and squared a low ball back to Matt Gearing. However
Gearing's close range effort was blocked by Mike
Trought and the rebound bounced fortuitously into
the hands of Clevedon keeper Danny Greaves.
On
23 minutes, Rugby saw another good opportunity
blocked on the goal-line, this time it was a typical
header from Delroy Gordon, with Danny Haines the
Seasiders' saviour this time.
The
home side were mainly reliant on a long ball strategy,
and with Rugby lacking the determination that
they had shown in previous away fixtures this
season, the pressure began to build.
The
opening goal came just after the half hour mark,
when Haines found Jack Pitcher with a slide rule
pass, and the Clevedon's player of the year last
season coolly slotted the ball past Farhad Afandiyev.
Worst
was to come for Rugby minutes later, when Afandiyev
committed a howling mistake scuffing his free-kick
to Pitcher, who tapped the ball sideways to Mitchell
Page and with Afandiyev still way short of his
area, Page then lofted it into the unguarded net.
Jeffrey
changed things around at the start of the second
half, introducing Ross Harris and pushing Aaron
Stringfellow into a midfield role. With Clevedon
happy to sit back and defend their two goal cushion,
the onus was on Rugby to dictate the game, but
all too often their final ball into the box went
astray or play broke down at the critical point.
When
the visitors were able to get a shot on goal,
they were either let down by the quality of their
finishing or found Greaves in good form.
Stringfellow
had a goal bound shot blocked on the line, and
after good work down the right between Harris
and Jason Taylor, Stone saw his strike well-saved,
and finally Taylor was again guilty of squandering
a golden opportunity, when mid-way through the
half, he scuffed his close range effort after
Stone had found him with a good cross.
As
they became increasingly frustrated by their lack
of success, Rugby's attacks slowly petered out,
and Clevedon wrapped the game up in the final
minute with a fine individual effort from substitute
Leon Hapgood, who jinked past a couple of defenders
before applying a neat finish.
Report
by Jon Venner. |
