28/2/15: On Saturday Mendip finally clinched promotion with a comprehensive victory over local rivals Shepton Mallet A.
The visitors started well and perhaps had the better of the opening exchanges with their front 2 busy working the line and the Mendip full-backs had to be fully alert to avoid being dragged out of position on more than one occaision. With barely 10 minutes gone though, Shepton eventually broke through the Mendip rearguard and opened the scoring in curious circumstances as a tame shot headed goalward and following a rare misjudgment by the totally reliable Leigh Taylor, instead of going safely wide it hit the inside of the post and crossed the line.
Merely treating it as a minor set-back Mendip immediately went on the offensive. New boy Mark Bartholomew got to grips with centre midfield and that allowed Josh Sutton and Will Lawton the freedom to surge forward at every opportunity. Their passing and movement soon had Shepton back tracking and it wasn’t long before Mendip drew level as Will dribbled down the right and picked out John Lippiatt to score from close range.
Mendip kept applying pressure to the already ruffled back-line and when a defender was adjudged to have stopped the ball illegally on the line, Steve Smith stepped up to convert the Penalty Stroke.
Mendip did not relinquish their strangle hold on the match, continuing to press home their advantage as both John and Steve ran amok inside the opposition half and when a strong shot brought about a smart save from the Shepton keeper Steve was on hand to fire high into the roof of the net and Mendip took a comfortable 3 – 1 lead into the break.
Mendip came out in the 2nd half and simply carried on where they left off. Bart had the midfield pretty well locked down and was able to distribute the ball intelligently down both flanks as the full-backs pushed forward to support the attack. With Mendip very much on top they were awarded several short corners but neither Steve nor Oli Beechener were able to score from the direct route as the ‘drag flick’ option was swatted away by the keeper with total disregard. However, eventually they chose to play the switch and a well worked short corner routine resulted in John deflecting home at the far post, following 3 quick passes.
With Shepton penned back in their own half for long spells, Mendip were able to dictate and even James Lovell threw off his defensive duties and ventured forward on more than one strong solo run to join in the attack. The relentless pressure forced errors in the Shepton defence and Steve scored his hat-trick from a 2nd Penalty Stroke to put the result of the match beyond any doubt but not to be out done, John then scored his hat-trick from another well worked short corner routine.
Mendip enjoyed the final minutes of the match playing with total freedom and expression and there was even time for John to bag his 4th goal when he pounced on a loose ball in the D and swept under the keeper’s body on the reverse stick to round off a convincing 7 – 1 win.
The Team was: Leigh Taylor, Andy Flint, Giles Denning, Rich Penn, James Lovell, Josh Sutton, Mark Bartholomew, Will Lawton, Liam Young, Oli Beechener, John Lippiatt and Steve Smith.
Thanks to Vicky Parfitt and Carol Holmes for umpiring.
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