Cirencester Town FC
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Cirencester Town FC
The home of football, corporate events, courses and celebrations
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Cirencester produced a very disciplined performance on a difficult, soft pitch to return from Paulton with the 3 points as Will Tunnicliff scored the only goal of the game in the final quarter.
Paulton visited The Corinium Stadium back in October when they were 2nd in the league table and left with the 3 points after winning 4-2 but recent weeks have seen them drop to 6th whilst obtaining 5 points from their last 6 games. Since their last meeting Cirencester have moved up the table from 12th to 9th.
The home side kicked off on a soft pitch that made balance difficult with the advantage of both the wind and slope and immediately attacked to the right corner and during the first quarter Ed Butcher was prominent both in terms of free kicks and charging runs and one of the former from the right flank took a wicked bounce in front of ‘keeper Kev Sawyer who reacted quickly to push it over his bar.
Despite being under pressure for most of this period Cirencester did manage a couple of counter attacks, one of which resulted in a corner kick that Will Tunnicliff headed over, and by the half hour mark the visitors had begun to work their flanks to the corners.
Shortly after this Paulton produced an incisive move as Marcus Day played the ball up the centre to David Sims-Burgess who laid it off for David O’Hare to shoot from just outside the Ciren box. Sawyer parried the effort before picking it up.
Cirencester began to press more frequently after this and when Jonny Dennis cut right from the left corner a couple of times - the first led to a blocked shot and the second a shot from Nick Hancock and corner kick that Will Wellon headed over.
As the half drew to a close Ben Withey launched a free kick into the Cirencester box leading to a couple of corner kicks and Cirencester responded to end the half with a threat on the home goal as Lewis Thompson crossed from the left corner for Tommy Anderson to pop up with a near post header that ‘keeper Aaron Sainsbury parried at full stretch before picking up as Hancock closed.
Half Time: 0-0
After the break Cirencester pressed to win a corner kick and Paulton countered for Day to shoot over the bar from the edge of the box but now that the visitors had the advantage of the slope and wind they began to press regularly.
On the hour Anderson burst into the right channel of the home area and was tripped as he released the ball to Hancock who fired narrowly wide of the left post from the edge of the box but having allowed the play to continue the Referee didn’t see fit to award a penalty kick.
A few minutes later as Ciren pressed they were awarded a free kick from the left flank that Anderson delivered towards the far post – it cleared Levi Irving but was met by the head of Josh Nelmes as he came in behind him but it flew wide of the left post.
Almost immediately the visitors were back again as Tunnicliff delivered a free kick to the front edge of the Paulton box – Hancock head flicked it on but it rebounded back to him and he instantly sent a right footed curling shot just over the bar.
With all the possession and pressure being exerted on the home defence Cirencester finally made the breakthrough following a neat move as Ross Gabriel and Anderson exchanged passes as they worked their way into the penalty area leading to a corner kick from the right. Anderson sent the kick towards the penalty spot where WILL TUNNICLIFF rose to place a powerful header inside the top right corner. 0-1.
Shortly before the goal Paulton had threatened when Ben Bament had the ball rebound back to him twice as he burst down the left channel into the Ciren box before shooting across the goalmouth where Tunnicliff cleared.
As the game entered the final 15 minutes Paulton rallied to create a couple of sharp chances that Day fired wide of the target but Ciren were soon pressing again as Irving ran to the box from half way before over-running the ball and Anderson crossed from the left to the far post where Wellon just failed to make contact.
A few minutes from the final whistle Hancock and Gabriel combined for the latter to slip the ball through for Anderson to collect in the home area but his resulting cross was caught by Sainsbury.
Full Time: 0-1
A determined performance on a difficult pitch - and with a strong wind and slope to contend with during the first half it was a very good result.
Attendance: 73
Referee: Thomas Staten
PAULTON ROVERS:
1. Aaron Sainsbury
2. Ben Withey
3. Nuno Felix
4. Charlie Hitchings ©
5. Braeden Symes
6. Bradley Abraham
7. Marcus Day
8. Charles Ten-Grotenhuis
9. David Sims-Burgess
10. David O’Hare
11. Edward Butcher
12. Ben Bament (Edward Butcher-31mins)
14. Joseph Hillard (David O’Hare-86mins)
15. Daniel Dempsey (Nuno Felix-77mins)
16. Kye Mountford
17. Luke Seviour
CIRENCESTER TOWN:
1. Kevin Sawyer
2. Jordan Morris
3. Will Tunnicliff 73
4. Joseph Turley
5. Josh Nelmes
6. Will Wellon
7. Tommy Anderson
8. Michael Pook ©
9. Lewis Thompson
10. Nick Hancock
11. John Dennis
12. Jack Freeman (Tommy Anderson-89mins)
14. Ross Gabriel (John Dennis-71mins)
15. Levi Irving (Lewis Thompson-55mins)
16. James Mortimer-Jones