Crusaders cruise to comfortable win

WESTON Crusaders Under-12s entertained Isle of Wedmore in their first game after the Christmas period.

Morteo and Havard up front were causing problems and the midfield of Ellis-Barker, Thomas-Barker, Shipway and Santoro played well and the back line of Redding, Buxton, Rac, Cox and Burgess played extremely well.

Cox opened the scoring after a fine play between Havard, Morteo, Shipway and Santoro. Five minutes later, Crusaders doubled their lead when Havard scored from long range. With half-time approaching, Crusaders conceded a penalty which Wedmore missed.

After the break, Thomas, Bonner, Filby and Denyer replaced Thomas-Barker, Morteo, Burgess and Cox. Crusaders created many chances which the Wedmore keeper saved.

With 10 minutes left, Cox and Thomas-Barker came back into the game and Cox rounded off a fine move by heading past the Wedmore keeper to make it 3-0.

A few minutes later Thomas was brought down just outside the box and Thomas-Baker scored from the resulting free kick to make the final score 4-0.

There were a couple of outstanding performances, especially Redding, but Crusaders man of the match went to Harry Cox.

AFTER several weeks without a fixture, Winscombe Under-12s travelled to Burnbridge Wanderers and came away with a 5-3 victory.

The home side settled quickest, but some excellent defending by Philip Skinnarland and Will Shergold prevented any danger to the Winscombe goal.

Toby Chambers, Finn Finch, Billy Berry and Matthew Gilmore all had shots saved, before James Ford played a neat one-two with Toby Chambers and then slid a pass into the path of Matthew Gilmore who netted.

George Fairchild went close before Chambers released Gilmore to double the lead. From the kick-off, a ball over the top of the defence found a Burnbridge striker who made the score 2-1 to the visitors.

James Ford hit the post and then Burnbridge were thwarted by Ed Parsons before the home side were awarded a penalty to level the scores at half-time.

Burnbridge started the second half strongly and took the lead to go 3-2 ahead. Mason Boobyer and Finch both went close before Shergold scored the equaliser.

Winscombe continued to press and took the lead through a George Fairchild free kick. Then man of the match Matthew Gilmore set up Ben Lee to round off an impressive 5-3 win for Winscombe.

WORLE Under-13s gave an impressive first half performance against Backwell Wanderers, taking a 4-1 lead into the half-time break.

Tom Stephens opened the scoring after some great play down the right and Aaron Lawrence then broke into the box and drilled home Worle’s second.

Backwell responded with a tap-in after a great initial save by Sam, but Tom Stephen made it 3-1 with an exquisite flick. Lucas made it 4-1 after a break.

Hugh Parry won a penalty at the start of the second half, which Lucas converted to make it 5-1. Worle then eased off as Backwell dug in and pulled two goals back to make the final score 5-3.

Trowbridge Plumbing and Heating man of the match was awarded to Lucas Elliman.

The Under-11s started with Ben Moore in goal and a new formation of Aaron Pitt (c), Will Stephens and Lewis Creegen in defence, Charlie Harvey, Ben Druce and Ryan Johnson in the centre and Dan Ward and Ted Crabb on the wings, with Keaton Walker and Cole Griffiths as strikers.

Worle started well, but with Burnbridge’s first trip out of their own half saw them take the lead. Worle had two goals disallowed before Josh Ball was introduced into the Worle defence. Some great football opened Burnbridge up and Dan Ward crashed a great shot just wide.

Cole Griffiths picked the ball up just outside the Burnbridge 18-yard area, nutmegged a defender before slotting a perfect ball for Ryan Johnson to smash home from eight yards.

Burnbridge were limited to breakaways only and a couple of hairy moments were soon snubbed out by Ben Moore in the Worle goal as the game finished 1-1. Man of the match was Dan Ward.

WESTON Town Under-14s started brightly against Burnham with some crisp passing through midfield and were looking dangerous down the wings.

They were unlucky not to take the lead in the opening few minutes when Ben Sampson saw his effort hit the bar, but it was not long before the pressure told and Jamie Ramplin headed in superbly from a corner.

The rest of the half saw good performances from Kieran Knapp and Jack Hockey at the back and they never looked like letting the visitors back into the game.

The second half continued in a similar way with Weston playing the better passing game. Some excellent link up play allowed an unmarked Bradley Cattle-Middleton to score his first goal for the club.

To Burnham’s credit they pushed forward and created a couple of good chances which Weston keeper Killain Vick dealt with expertly. Dan Berry powered a shot that the keeper could only parry into the net. A few minutes later the scoring was complete when Berry went past his marker and scored again.

The Mercedes Benz man of the match award went to Bradley Cattle-Middleton.

The Under-6s hosted Clevedon United for their third game and ran out 6-3 winners in frosty conditions.

Weston began well and were soon two up thanks to a double by Josh Shepherd. Good work by the energetic Harrison Campbell resulted in Shepherd tapping in for his hat-trick before the visitors pulled one back.

Jacob Baker increased the margin with a quickfire hat-trick of his own before two late goals from Clevedon gave the scoreline some respectability.

BANWELL Under-12s went into this game with Axbridge with one eye on next week’s cup semi-final against Yatton Athletic.

Banwell put the pressure on right from the kick-off, the first opportunity falling to Harrison Giles, his effort just going over the bar. The first goal came after a solo effort from Sam White.

Banwell’s midfield of Honey, Smith, Hastewell and Giles kept pressing forward looking for the second goal. It was Giles with a defence splitting pass down the right for Honey to cross first time that made the goal. White was in the right place to volley the ball home.

Liam Smith went close on two occasions and his persistence paid off when he scored the third. The defence of Edwards, Vernon, Jenkins and Tucker were tidy in what they had to do. Sam White completed his hat-trick with a spot kick to finish the game off at 4-0.

Supporters’ man of the match was Jamie Jenkins and the manager’s man of the match went to Ryan Hastewell.