Yate Town 3 v 2 AFC Totton

Saturday 13th February 2010
Zamaretto (Southern) League South and West Division
Lodge Road, Yate
Admission: £7.00
Programme: £1.50
Attendance: 147
Match Rating: 5

As has been commonplace for me in recent weeks, today I ended up at a game which was about third or fourth choice at the time of setting out, but it turned out that I would watch a real cracker of a game with plenty of goals at a very pleasant rural venue.

When I booked my Megabus tickets to Bristol a few months ago, the intention was to watch the team I support, Charlton Athletic, at Bristol Rovers, however, subsequently that game was put back to the Monday as Sky chose this game for their televised fare. Luckily, Bristol has a plethora of non-league clubs in and around the city and so finding an alternative was never going to be a problem. I had still not made my mind up which game to go to on the coach journey down to Bristol - the very local derby at Longwell Green Sports against Brislington in the Western League was tempting, however I finally decided upon watching another Western League game, last year's champions, Bitton, at home to this year's high-flyers, Ilfracombe Town. On arrival at Bristol bus station, this plan and the back up were both ruined as the bus I needed to catch to get to either game was seriously delayed due to breaking down on a previous journey. So instead, I embarked on a 45 minute bus journey northwards into Gloucestershire, to watch the Zamaretto League encounter between Yate Town and AFC Totton.

The home of Yate Town, Lodge Road, is about a 20 minute walk from Yate train station, and is an attractive setting for football, with two sides of the pitch closely surrounded by trees. Facilities are somewhat basic for an established Southern League club that was in the Premier Division up to last season, with one small seated stand along one touchline and a covered stand of terracing behnd one of the goals, but the ground is neat and tidy and adequate for the modest level of support that Yate attract. The programme was reasonable although probably more comparable with County League efforts than other Southern/Isthmian clubs. Nevertheless it had enough information and statistics to be a decent read and provided a good background to today's game.

Going into today's game, Yate were on a good run, having won three of their last four games and having only lost twice in the league since mid November. A poor early part of the season means they languished in 11th place. AFC Totton would surely be tough opponents however, up in second place in the league, and having played at least three games fewer than all those around them in the league. Although there is seemingly little chance of pushing for the championship - unbeaten Windsor and Eton are 12 points clear, a play-off berth looks a very real poincreasingly likely for Totton.

On another bitterly cold afternoon, this was probably the most entertaining game I have watched all season, full of attacking endeavour, chances galore and only close misses and inspired goalkeeping kept the score down. Totton took the lead on the stroke of half time, although how on earth only one goal was scored was a complete mystery, Totton being particulatly unlucky not to score more, finding the Yate goalkeeper in inspired form, although Yate also had plenty of clear opportunities to score. In the second half, Yate turned the game on its head as they took advantage of some very average Totton defending to take the lead within 13 minutes of the restart. Yate extended their lead to 3-1 with 12 minutes remaining to seemingly secure the three points.Totton ensured a tense finale by pulling a goal back a few minutes from time, however Yate held on for a win they may have just about deserved, however a high scoring draw might have been the fairest reflection of a highly entertaining game in which both teams played a full part.

Taunton Town 0 v 1 Yate Town

Wordsworth Drive, Taunton

Saturday 5th September 2009

Zamaretto (Southern) League Division 1 South and West

Admission: £7.00

Programme: £1.50

Attendance: 225

Only one word can descrbe this game...dismal. Which was all the more disappointing after making a round trip of about 9 hours and 400 miles to watch it. In fairness, there wasn't anything particularly appealing about this game to start with - I simply decided to take advantage of National Express' £10 return funfare for a day out and to watch a game in a different part of the country. Taunton is a very pleasant town, the county town of Somerset, and the walk westwards from the bus station to the ground took just under half an hour. Wordsowrth Ground is quite an unremarkable ground, although one unsual feature is a very long clubhouse which stretches two thirds of the way along one of the touchlines, and in front of it a tiny litltle stand. The programme is more impressive, with good quality card cover, and with comprehensive information about the home and away sides.

Both sides had made solid starts to the season with a couple of wins out of 4 games each and both progressing in the FA Cup the previous week. As this game was relatively a local derby (with Yate being based close to Bristol, and relatively considering teams from this league are based as far away as London and Oxfordshire), a competitive game was expected. However, Taunton were really dreadful today, hardly able to string passes together and conitnually putting the ball out of play. Yate always looked the better side without themselves looking much cop, and they had several chances to score in the first half.

At half time, enduring one of the weakest, most horrible hot chocolates imagineable (at £1 a go at that), I was thinking that if ever there was a banker for a goalless draw, this is it. However, four minutes into the second half, Yate did manage to score, appropriately after a scrap in the penalty area. Midway through the second half, Taunton were reduced to ten men, which said everything about the ineptness of the officials, giving out a second yellow card for the player's second very mild foul, as did 9 yellow cards despite this not being a dirty game at all and hardly a bad foul to be seen, also as did the referee miss a blatant backpass which the goalkeeper picked up yet play was allowed to continue. As Taunton didn't look a threat with 11 men, there was little prospect of this improving, and so it proved, not having a shot on goal until the last 5 minutes, when they did have a couple of half chances.

So a deserved win for Yate, although a goalless draw would have been a fairer reflection on a dreadfully poor game. After wondering around the pleasant surroundings of historic Taunton, I boarded the 1800 coach back to London for the long journey home.