Downpour fails to halt CS charge

Taunton CS A, fresh from a week off due to postponement, sought to add 3 more points to their early season tally with an away game against Sidmouth and Ottery D. As one of the closer matches from the previous season, the game was not taken lightly by TCS as a strong line up took to the field. SidOtt lined up with a mixture of experience and youth and frustrated TCS in the early play.

Eventually the deadlock was broken as Jason 'Mexican' Harris powered through the back line, along the baseline and pulled the ball into the danger area for Carter to tap in at close range. SidOtt had some success of their own moving forward and a short corner awarded led to a goal line stop from the very experienced Jim Smith... Sadly he neglected the stick and stopped the ball with his foot instead - penalty flick awarded. The SidOtt skipper tucked the flick away with precision and levelled the scores.

TCS regained dominance and a surging run from Ben Witt and a fine strike put TCS ahead again - following a pass from Curtis 'Martina' Bradley and possibly, even further back in the play, defensive returnee Ali Johnston. Sides went in at half time with the away side 2-1 up. A final motivating team talk from stand-down skipper Conor Neal stirred emotion. Some wept, some sobbed, some just bitched about previous officiating performances but all were spurred into action and came out raring to go for the second half.

Early on, the rain began to drive down but nothing could dampen the attacking spirit of the TCS A side and soon, spearheaded by the offensive determination of Curt Bradley, TCS were on the score sheet again. First Bill 'the hammer' Horner tapped in from close range assisted by a sublime pass in from Bradley who then repeated the act in setting up Conor Neal at the far post.

Then came 30 seconds of lost heads as Captain Conor saw green for complaining followed by Jason 'the mexican' (this boy is keen on a green card) also earning a green for asking too many questions. As TCS A became more confident, Jim Smith started to experience more and more success on the right flank and eventually found the base line cutting back for an easy tap in for Carter on the P-spot.

TCS with a convincing 5 - 1 scoreline but lots of credit must go to the SidOtt team who played a difficult game in the correct spirit despite terrible weather. TCS A would like to thank Conor Neal for all of his hard work over the past year and a half in bringing squads together, bringing youth into the competitive side of the adult membership and for captaincy by example (mostly positively). Cheers mate and good luck to new captain Dan Adams who will skipper the side against East Devon D next week.

MOTM went to Bill Horner for excellent play on the left wing. A great Debut by Ollie Walker on the right and a big thank you to those players who put off a game in the big league to support us in the 2s. DOTD went to Andy Carter for running away from the ball and having too many whingey moments during the first half.