Combe St Nicholas 1 - 1 Yatton Athletic
3pm, 15th September 2007
Yatton’s first team continued their unbeaten start to the campaign with a hard fought draw against a tough, uncompromising Combe St Nicholas side. Yatton started slowly, with Combe taking full advantage with plenty of forays into Yatton territory, although with little end result. The management team of Walker and Richards quickly switched to plan B, allowing Yatton to increase their share of possession and create a number of good openings.
Unfortunately Combe made Yatton pay for some poor defending from an in-swinging corner by bundling the ball in at the far post after keeper Stone had misjudged the flight of the ball. Yatton pushed forward and created some further openings before the half was over, with Read, Keedwell and Limon unlucky not to convert from promising positions.
The second half saw Yatton assume almost total domination, without ever consistently threatening the Combe St Nicholas goal. Combe’s tactics of sending long, high balls to their target man down the slope were easily dealt with by Millard, Moore and Watts, as well as James Bird who looked accomplished having replaced the injured captain Cox.
Vice-captain Lee attempted to rally the troops having been switched to central midfield, but with little being created in terms of goal scoring opportunities the management team sent on Scott Bird for the off colour Richards and Ciaran Hall for the tiring Keedwell, pushing veteran Watts up front for one last push.
The central midfield pairing of Abrahams and Lee worked tirelessly to provide openings for the team, before Millard pounced on some slack defending when all seemed lost. Having been sent up front with a final roll of the dice, Millard found himself with the goal at his mercy following some good work by Read causing confusion in the home defence, and found the net from the edge of the box sending the away dugout into raptures.
Yatton almost stole an unlikely victory as Scott Bird found himself free at the far post deep into stoppage time, only to see his header cleared off the line by some last ditch defending. Despite appeals, and the home side’s linesman indicating otherwise, the referee deemed that the ball had not crossed the line.
Overall the team were happy to continue their unbeaten run with this hard earned point. A battling display against a physical, direct side was encouraging for this young Yatton side, showing that they are certainly no pushovers.
