Taunton CS 2 - Taunton Vale 2

With the first friendly of the season for Taunton CS, they would be facing off against Taunton Vale C’s for a friendly local derby.

Restricted to one umpire due to availability issues, both teams agreed to play fairly, and helping out the umpire whenever possible with decision making.

Facing against a solid Vale side, the first half was kept to nil-nil due to some great defending work from Ali Johnston and Alex Bartram controlling the centre of defence, with Curtis Bradley and Harry Elsmore playing pivotal roles on the left and right back, respectively, and the keeping skills of Andy Carter.

Starting in a central defensive midfield position was Torrin Everitt, offering support to the defence and bolstering the attacking formation were necessary, Simon Jones playing the point guard attacking central midfielder, being the playmaker for the strikers Mark Sawyer and Bill Horner. Supporting the midfielders were newly appointed Skipper Fin Porter and Sam Woodland, with Jack Daly ready to step in to help out.

After a slow, building game for both teams, the second half started with a bang, then another as Vale took a two-nil lead as a result of some good passing work and quick play.

After some good movement and some great teamwork, Harry Elsmore set up Mark Sawyer for CS’s first goal to get them back in the game.

Shortly after, a fantastic run from Jack Daly, with the set up from Bill Horner, lead to CS’s second goal and tied up the game. After both teams looking quite dangerous a few times but nothing coming of it, the final whistle was blown and the game came to an end at two all.

Man of the Match went to Andy Carter, who hasn’t played in goal for 2 years and kept Vale at bay for the majority of the match.

Honourable mention goes to Jack Daly for playing a great game, keeping his pace and movement up and putting away the goal to tie CS up.

DotD was awarded to Torrin for having a tantrum when the skipper asked him to take a free hit and for his post game de-motivational speech.