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Banned keeper to miss Cirencester's vital derby with Yate

CIRENCESTER TOWN go into the vital local derby with Yate Town on Saturday without their player of the season so far.

Cirencester's upturn in fortunes, thanks to fine wins at both Paulton Rovers and Evesham United, has stalled again with two defeats in four days against Bristol City's U23s in the GFA Senior Cup and Bideford in the league.

While the display against the young City slickers could not be faulted, Ciren were disappointing at Bideford on Saturday, never recovering from being 2-0 down after just seven minutes.

And to compound their woes keeper Matt Wieczorek, who has repeatedly starred for Ciren this season, was sent off in the 61st minute after a challenge outside his box.

With Wieczorek's one-game ban kicking in immediately, boss Charlie Griffin is working hard to secure an emergency keeper for one game.

"Matt has been in really good form and we will definitely miss his presence," said Griffin.

"It was never a red card but having said that it wasn't the only bad decision against us at Bideford.

"Matt has come out his box to cover a ball over the top and in making his clearance has fouled their player. A yellow, maybe, but never a red – he was over near the touchline.

"We actually played better with 10 men than with 11 at Bideford.

"Their goal in the third minute is the sort of great finish that you could not repeat in 20 tries and then their player went to ground far too easily for the penalty that made it 2-0.

"That apart, though, we were never doing enough and the third goal was very poor on our part. Not too many of them came out of it with any credit.

"It was like a totally different team compared to the one I saw at Evesham."

Griffin was nonetheless satisfied with the latest Ciren debut of striker Jordan Ricketts, who has joined on dual registration while not getting any game time with Chippenham.

He had two brief spells at Ciren when Brian Hughes was the manager.

"Jordan gives us something different and he has grown up a bit since he was last here," said Griffin.

"He scored quite a few goals and had plenty of assists when with Paulton at this level last season."

Yate come into the derby game at the Corinium buoyant after a 3-0 drubbing of Shortwood on Saturday, and they caused one of the shocks of the season last month when going to Taunton Town and beating the league leaders 4-1.

Yate sit in 18th place in the Southern League West with Cirencester immediately below them in the first relegation place.

It is a game which both sides will think they should be winning and Griffin insisted: "I will be looking for a big response from my lads after the poor effort at Bideford."

This entry was posted on 19 October 2017 at 08:08 and is filed under Miscellaneous | First Team. You can leave a response here.

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