Taunton CS v Isca D

Having earlier seen the 2nd XI convincingly defeat Isca E the 1st XI travelled down to Exeter to take on Isca D in the 4.30pm grave yard shift. The match was a must win should Taunton CS wish to finish in the top half of the table this season, therefore 3 points from the team sitting just above them in 6th place was mandatory.

With Mark Sawyer rested the selection panel decided to let Toron Everett put his money where is mouth is and have a run out up front, only time would tell if this was sensible! Curtis Bradley retained his place and left back and Harry Elsmore and Ben Caile returned to take up their familiar positions in defence.

The game started in usual fashion with Simon Jones confusing the opposition from the start by playing for territory. Taunton CS were slow to adapt to bouncy pitch with a number of seemingly simple passes not collected or mis controlled. Even so it was Taunton that had the early opportunities with Ben Witt, Toron Everett and Fin Porter having earl chances to but the away side in the lead. However as the half progressed Isca managed to get themselves into the game and against the run of play took the lead. Going a goal down did not evoke the required reaction from the visiting side as Taunton struggled to get back in the game. An away goal did not look likely especially as short corner king Simon Jones was significantly off target with a number of corners and eventually manage to play out the first half to finish a goal down at the whistle which could have been more without a number of sharp save by Miles Cave.

With only a few words uttered during the half time huddle Taunton seemed to get the message and started the second half with a lot more enthusiasm than they ended the first half with and were able to play the game in the Isca half. This did present opportunities for the Isca to break however any threats were quickly and calmly cut out by Harry Elsmore, Curtis Bradley and Ben Caile. Pressure from Taunton materialised into an equaliser as Ben Witt was able to sweep the ball in to the Isca goal after their defence was unable to deal with the preceding scramble in the area. Back on level terms Taunton again tried to raise the tempo and the strain on the opposition clearly showed as the oldest player on the Isca team decided to square up to Ben Witt as they battled shoulder to shoulder. With around fifteen minutes to go in the game Ali Johnston on a foreign run into the opposition’s 23 swept the ball into the area which was collected by Toron Everett who was given plenty of time to turn towards goal by the Isca defence and as Toron had been telling us all all season finally showed us how to finish by hitting the back board to put Taunton 2-1 up. As the remaining minutes of the game played out James Coles took great offence to an innocent clash of legs with an Isca player and loudly questioned the Isca player’s parentage as he fell to the ground much to the amusement of his own team. With the James Coles show over Taunton saw out the final minutes of the game to secure a solid win with a much improved second half performance and to leap frog Isca into 6th place in the league.

MOM was awarded to Miles Cave for a number of saves in the first half which kept Taunton in the game until the 13 outfield players in the squad decided to get their act together. Surprising DOD did not go to Toron Everett however was almost unanimously awarded to James Coles for his outburst and tumble.

Team was as follows; Miles Cave (GK), Curtis Bradley, Harry Elsmore, Ben Caile, Ali Johnston (c), Jim Smith, Simon Jones, Ben Witt (1), Jesse Mooney, Fin Porter, Lee Slade, James Coles, Pete Wintripp and Toron Everett (1)