Weston-Super-Mare vs Taunton C.S. A

It was a beautiful day for the first match of 2013; it was dry! Civil turned up with only ten players, but they were well rested and ready for a run around. Not one had overindulged over Christmas, none had drunk or eaten too much and no one was carrying a rough sounding, hacking cough.

Weston made their extra man known, and throughout the game made good use of the extra space. They moved the ball around quickly, and applied swift pressure. For the first time in several games, keeper Mike Whitman was forced to make a quick save.

The first short corner of the game sent Ali Johnston ducking as the ball whistled past at head height, before pinging off the post. Sadly, the next two were far more accurate, as the home side scored from both. The first took an unfortunate deflection off Neil Garret, while an initial save did not prevent a follow up shot converting the second.

At half time, Civil gained an unexpected boon, as one of the Weston substitutes donned a red shirt. Still, the second half was far from perfect. Taunton let in five more goals (at least three of which were keeper error).

However, the outfield put in a decent performance. In attack, Civil actually scored first in the second half, when the ball rocketed into the D from Simon Dacey’s stick. The shamefaced Weston goalkeeper couldn’t get completely out of the way and he deflected the ball into the back of the net. Simon would get his second, while Andy Carter scored with a phenomally light touch.

The game was played in good spirits throughout, a friendly in the truest sense of the word. The scoreline did not really reflect the amount of effort that was put into the game by Taunton, but the sundry aches and pains suffered across the team offered a truer testimony.