27/09/14: Mendip got their league campaign off to a winning start at Norton Hill on Saturday but at times were made to work extremely hard, which made the victory all the more satisfying.
The hosts were patient in the early stages and moved the ball confidently across their back line, switching the play from side to side, probing for an opportunity to go on the offensive. This considered build up play soon reaped its rewards and Mendip took the lead from virtually their first meaningful attack as the front 3 interchanged with incisive passing and movement, carving through the defence, allowing Liam Young to ghost in at the far post and tap in from close range.
Liam was relishing his free role and in the next ten minutes or so he used his pace to terrorise the Westbury defence and create several chances. However, the hosts were not able to capitalise on their period of dominance and if they were more clinical in front of goal, could perhaps have quite easily gone 3 or 4 up.
With barely a quarter of the match gone, misfortune befell the visiting keeper and he limped off, ending any further participation.
Westbury decided to continue with 11 outfield players and the dynamic of the play gradually turned in their favour as the ‘extra’ player allowed them to press higher up the pitch and create chances of their own. However, the Mendip defence stood firm and even though Leigh Taylor made some good clearances, his goal was never really under threat.
The hosts continued to play as a tight cohesive unit and despite being out numbered the midfield trio worked tirelessly to close down and win possession.
Going forward Mendip were always a threat and when they eventually won their first short corner, without a keeper it was merely a formality for Steve Smith to ‘drag flick’ high into the net and afford a 2 – 0 lead going into the break.
The visitors came out strong in the 2nd half and caught Mendip cold almost immediately from the re start with a ‘route one’ ball fired into the D and although Leigh rushed off his line to intervene, the forward beat him to the ball and the deficit was halved.
Although visibly rattled by the setback, Mendip did not panic and used their solid and well organised defence as a platform to allow the midfield to express their creativity and provide the service to the exuberant forwards.
As the half progressed, Mendip began to take hold of the match and when Steve dribbled his way through the defence to prod home, his celebrations were short lived as he was adjudged to have used a ‘back stick’ and the goal was disallowed.
Shortly after that Mendip believed they had scored another as Steve fired in from a well worked short corner routine involving no fewer than 4 slick passes. However, once again the celebrations were short lived as the two umpires took their time to confer and ultimately decided, quite correctly, that the shot was ‘too high’ and the goal was disallowed.
All credit to Mendip as they maintained their discipline, with the match finely poised and a rejuvenated Westbury swarming forward in the belief that it might just be their day and they could pinch a result. However, Steve would simply not be denied as he raced onto a through ball and coolly slotted home to finally bag his brace.
That seemed to relax the hosts and the front 3 went into overdrive with Liam scoring 2 goals in quick succession, benefitting from some cute interaction between Steve and John Lippiatt and popping up to tap in from close range on both occasions, effectively sealing victory.
Now with Liam scoring 3 and Steve 2, the fairytale ending would have been for John to convert a well-deserved goal to round off his afternoon’s endeavours. However, when he received the ball at velocity with his back to goal he clearly had not read the script and instead of deftly guiding the ball into an empty goal he only contrived to deflect the ball onto his own foot when it was surely harder to miss than score.
With the game all but sewn up, Mendip switched off and were perhaps guilty of complacency as a few unforced errors crept into their play and they allowed Westbury to break away and score 2 late consolation goals to make the scoreline more respectable.
All in all this was a difficult first league outing but the players diligently stuck to their task and showed enough resilience to see off a dangerous opponent.
Mendip player of the match was Liam for his hat trick but James Lovell must receive equal accolade for a totally assured display at left back and if this performance is a yardstick for things to come then he will surely become a regular in the senior team this season.
The Team was: Leigh Taylor, Andy Flint, Giles Denning, Rich Penn, James Lovell, Paul Floyd, Andy Wood, Josh Sutton, Will Lawton, Liam Young, Steve Smith and John Lippiatt.
Thanks to Karl Birk and Paul Woolway for umpiring.
Andy Flint
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