Yatton Athletic 1 - 2 Clevedon Utd Res

22nd September 2007

A spirited second half display against Clevedon was not enough to save Yatton from their first defeat of the season.

Yatton have a habit of starting slowly and this week was no exception. Clevedon arrived with a remarkably strong looking side given their league position, the absence of a fixture for their first team possibly no coincidence, and within five minutes an attack down the left and some dozy defending had gifted the visitors the lead through a soft penalty.

Yatton were struggling to make any positive impact on the game, and the first half was certainly their worst period of football in the season so far. At half time there was much work to do.

The second half saw a different team altogether, with Yatton playing the better football and Clevedon's players becoming ever more frustrated as they struggled to impose themselves on their hosts. This frustration culminated in a number of bookings, some for brainless arguing with the ref while others were for late challenges. In the end, unsurprisingly, one of the Clevedon players saw red and Yatton really made the spare man work to their advantage. 

Unfortunately this wasn't before a sublime free kick from 25 yards had put Clevedon further ahead. The two goal advantage didn't last long though, a bursting run saw Yatton awarded their own penalty, with Russell Cox stepping up to slot it home. In what is fast becoming a regular occurence, Bob Millard found himself jettisoned from defence and playing a striker's role, he nearly levelled matters with a shot from the edge of the box, this was blocked with what looked like a hand but the ref was uninterested and waved play on. As the full time whistle approached Yatton piled forward and rained attempts on the Clevedon goal but in the end it was all in vain, the unbeaten run was over and the visitors took the spoils.