3/10/15: On Saturday Mendip faced Keynsham in what can be considered to be a local derby and with a couple of key players missing took to the field with a bare 11 for the second week running, resulting in utility players Will Lawton and Liam Young playing in the unfamiliar positions of left back and centre midfield respectively. Mendip had little time to gel as Keynsham started in earnest and immediately put pressure on their backline but they coped well enough in the early stages and soaked up the pressure without too much anxiety. Having weathered the early storm Mendip began to ease their way into the match with Oli Beechener and Rich Briscoe working hard to drive the team forward and in fact it was the visitors who opened the scoring, perhaps against the run of play. When Keynsham were reduced to 10 men following a minor transgression Oli took full advantage and attacked down the left, feeding Steve Smith in the D who manufactured enough space to pirouette and fire home. That spurred the hosts into further fervour and man-of-the-match Rich Penn had to use all his guile and experience at centre back to steady the ship as they launched a plethora of attacks, swarming forward in numbers and at pace. Despite Keynsham’s territorial supremacy some sterling defending limited them to only a handful of half chances but eventually the equaliser came, albeit from a short corner, as a well-rehearsed move bamboozled the beleaguered defence leaving Leigh Taylor helplessly stranded as the goal went in. The trend of the half continued with Keynsham being the aggressors and Mendip resisting and counter attacking but the half time break arrived without further score. Mendip came out in the second half confident that they could get a result and were in no way over awed by their opposition. However, Keynsham were difficult to break down and much of Mendip’s play lacked penetration as they were unable to find that all important final ball to unlock the defence. A great deal of Mendip’s forward momentum was directed through the effervescent Briscoe so when the midfield maestro was lost to a hamstring injury with a quarter of the match still to play the task facing the remaining 10 men became that much harder and with Keynsham pressing high, Mendip found it increasingly difficult to clear their lines and spent a lot of the time defending deep in their own half. Mendip stood resolute and showed remarkable resilience but inevitably the amount of pressure they were under took its toll and they were unable to hold on, going 2 – 1 down to a well-executed ‘drag flick’ from a short corner and then when Mendip failed to react quickly enough inside the D, a forward pounced onto a loose ball to fire home for a 3 – 1 final score. All in all it was a disappointing end to what was a gutsy performance but Mendip showed enough heart and spirit to warrant holding their heads up high.
The team was: Leigh Taylor, Andy Flint (capt.), Rich Penn, James Lovell, Will Lawton, Oli Beechener, Rich Briscoe, Liam Young, Pete Waddington, Steve Smith and John Lippiatt.
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