Clevedon United 3 Portishead Town 2CLEVEDON United progressed into the next round of the Somerset Premier Cup, beating Portishead despite playing for two-thirds of the match with only 10 men.

Clevedon United 3

Portishead Town 2

CLEVEDON United progressed into the next round of the Somerset Premier Cup, beating Portishead despite playing for two-thirds of the match with only 10 men.

Clevedon started the brighter, taking the lead after eight minutes when a Ryan King free kick was rifled past Ganfield. On 20 minutes, a missed timed tackle earned Ryan Harris, his first yellow, and Dauncey had to be at his best to keep out the shot from James Clarke.

After 35 minutes, Harris tripped Clarke and referee Roger Vaughan was left with no alternative but to issue a second yellow. This was proving to be a real local derby. Clevedon refused to play a negative game and began to take a grip. They were rewarded on 44 minutes, following a good passing move and a neat one-two, Sam Clark released Ryan King who ran through to finish in style.

No sooner had the second half started when the ball fell to Leigh White some 25 yards out and his strike flew into the top right hand corner, giving the keeper no chance. Portishead now had a mountain to climb and Willis re-shuffled his pack, bringing on promising youngsters Clements, Marsdon and Kelly. He was rewarded on 52 minutes when a cheeky Mapstone back-heal managed to elude the Clevedon defence. Resolute defending and a quality save from Dauncey kept the score at 3-1 until the 80th minute, when Simon Kelly's shot was acrobatically tipped on to the crossbar only for Kelly to knock in the rebound.

Clevedon continued to attack and nearly increased the lead, when Sam Clark went through, but was denied by brave goalkeeping from Ganfield. Clark was unable to continue and he was replaced by Simon Riggs.

Clevedon's three-man midfield of Springett, White and Andrews worked tirelessly. Gordano Carpets man of the match was Greg Andrews (Clevedon).