Nailsea & Tickenham 1 v 3 Shepton Mallet

Saturday 27th January 2024, Kick-off 15.00

Western League Premier Division

Frythe Way, Nailsea

Admission: £7.00

Programme: Online Only

Attendance: 93

After last Saturday's relatively dull fare - visiting a Step 7 game on a 3G cage in school ground, and then a revisit - I decided I wanted to have a good day out today, and so I booked cheap coach tickets to Bristol for today, with its plethora of grounds to choose from within easy reach. I booked it with the safety of the 3G pitch at Keynsham Town in reserve in case of poor weather, but with mild and dry weather prevailing, I could keep that in reserve for future. I had decided on a visit to Cribbs, but on approaching Bristol I realised that it would be cutting it a little fine getting back from Cribbs to catch the 18.30 coach back to London. So eventually, I decided to take a bus journey westwards out of Bristol, which promised to be quite a scenic route, and to visit a club which seems to be on quite an impressive upwards trajectory.

After arriving in Nailsea, and having some lunch at the town's Wetherspoons, I then walked about 15 minutes to the north western fringe of the town. The entrance road is marked by a colourful fixture board, and admission is paid at a wooden hut at the entrance to the car park. This is only the club's second season in the National League System, so it is unsurprising that the ground has mostly temporary looking facilities, hastily added to facilitate the club's rise. All of the facilities are along one side, with a collection of portakabins stretching from one corner, housing the tea bar, officials' facilities, toilets and the clubhouse, from where the electronic programme for today's match could be downloaded via a QR Code. A rather rustic and home-made looking stand (and all the better for that) holding four rows of seats straddles the half way line, and adjacent to that is a container unit, from where merchandise can be purchased, and today's line-ups were written up on the outward facing door. There is hard standing along the opposite length and behind one end, while the other is inaccessible to spectators, presumably due to no hard standing being present. The ground has a scenic backdrop, with farmland and a church behind trees, and with rolling hills in the background.

After being promoted from the Somerset County League at the end of the 2021-22 season, Nailsea & Tickenham secured back to back promotions with a runners up finish last season in the Western League Division One, but their progress has slowed slightly this season, as they came into this game in mid table, in 12th place in the 18 club division, following nine wins and a draw from their 21 league games so far. They have won their last three league games, although those were against the bottom two clubs, home and away against Millbrook (including a 9-0 home win last Saturday) who are cast adrift at the bottom of the table, and Wellington.  Shepton Mallet were in ninth place in the table, following nine wins and five draws from their 20 league games, and they will still have hopes of a late run for the play-offs, being just four points adrift currently. When today's two sides met in the reverse fixture back in late August, Nailsea & Tickenham won 1-3.

On a mostly overcast afternoon with the sun trying to break through but was deceptively very chilly particularly as the game wore on, the hosts almost got off to a dream start when, in the second minute, a long throw in was diverted by a backward header onto the cross bar. But in the eighth minute, it was the visitors who took the lead when a free kick was delivered into the box, headed across goal and Josh Jenkins headed home. But on 22 minutes, the score was levelled when the ball was crossed into the box and Luke Osgood showed good composure to drill the ball home. But on 38 minutes, the visitors were given the opportunity to retake the lead when they were awarded a penalty, after Jenkins chased a ball forward, the Nailsea keeper came out to close him down but could only grab Jenkins' legs just inside the far outer right corner of the area. Jake Sloggett slotted the ball into the bottom right corner, sending the keeper the wrong way.

That was how it remained at the break, and in the second half, it was the visitors who always looked the more likely to score, and so it proved when they added a third on 72 minutes, when Cam Allen curled a lovely ball over the defence, and Ethan Witchell got the ball under control before striking the ball across the keeper and into the far corner. The hosts never really looked like getting back into the game after that until the game entered ten minutes of added on time, when a bullet header from a corner was superbly parried by the keeper. But then it was Shepton Mallet's turn to force some very good saves from the home keeper, but they had done more than enough to secure the three points, which saw them rise a place in the standings and within three points of the play-offs.