Cirencester Town FC
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Cirencester Town FC
The home of football, corporate events, courses and celebrations
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Click photo to view a slideshow of photos from the match
Match photos supplied by Graham Hill
The latest visitors to The Corinium Stadium were neighbours Highworth Town for the Easter Monday Bank Holiday fixture and after a match ruined as a spectacle by the strong cross-wind the score was tied at 1-1.
Prior to the match examination of the current form for the sides revealed that Highworth had obtained 5 points from their last 6 games and Cirencester 6 points to sit in 16th and 13th positions in the ‘6-Match Form Guide’ table respectively. In terms of league positions Highworth were 17th and Cirencester 10th with 26 and 48 points respectively. The revers fixture on Boxing Day resulted in a 4-0 victory for The Centurions but anything can happen in a local derby fixture.
The Cirencester starting eleven was unchanged from the 1-0 defeat at Hertford Town on Saturday.
The visitors kicked-off playing towards The Shed end of the ground and were immediately repelled for Cirencester to work the ball from left to right as Levi Irving carried the ball across the pitch before slipping it to Adulai Sambu who fed it to a charging Will Christopher who reached the corner before progress was stopped for a throw-in to Cirencester. From there the ball was worked back across to their left flank.
A couple of minutes later Cirencester tried the right flank again as Sambu supplied Reegan Messenger who shot from the right channel front edge of the visitor’s box – blocked.
After a couple of Highworth free kicks on their left flank that came to nought Cirencester tried their left flank again but the resulting ‘chip’ into the visitor’s box was safely gathered by ‘keeper Samuel Case.
Shortly after the ten-minute mark Highworth worked the ball down their right flank before switching play to their left for Miguel Alves to perform some trickery on the left side edge of the home box before sending his cross into the danger zone where Ellis Dunton headed clear.
Almost immediately the ball was at the other end as Aidan Bennett collected a Dunton pass and produced some trickery of his own to get past his marker and cross from the left corner but once again the defence came out on top to clear.
Highworth responded as Alves fired wide of the right post from the edge of the home box before a free kick delivered to the Penalty Spot was cleared by Christopher and another safely caught by ‘keeper Alex Harris.
Around the mid-point Cirencester threatened as Joe Shepherd’s shot was blocked and Christopher’s low cross was gathered at the second attempt by Case.
This was soon followed by a low cross from Shepherd passing through the Highworth box without contact.
At the 30-minute mark Messenger fired over and Bennett had his shot blocked.
In this half where neither side kept the ball for long due to the swirling wind it was the visitors that mounted an attack down their left flank as Alves released Harvey Fox for a run to the left channel front edge of the home box but his resulting cross was intercepted by Jake Lee for a counter attack to the right corner that also failed to create any threat.
This was generally the pattern of the first half as both sides found judging the weight of pass difficult in the swirling wind and neither side troubled their opposing ‘keeper unduly.
Half Time: 0-0
Cirencester started the second period positively and were rewarded with an early corner as Messenger’s shot was diverted but the visitors came closest to scoring when Miguel Alves fired into the side netting after 55 minutes.
A minute later Dunton headed the ball to Bennett and he flicked it over his shoulder into the path of Irving who carried it into the visitor’s box for a corner kick that was initially cleared but soon recycled from right to left for Dunton to evade a couple of challenges before sending it down the right channel where the threat eventually petered out.
On the hour Highworth reached their left corner with a quick counter attack as Alves slipped the ball inside to Oliver Rejek and he moved it on to Sol Pryce but the resulting header across the front edge of the home 6-yard box was comfortably cleared downfield and into the right corner where Case left his box to clear under pressure from Sambu.
Shortly afterwards a Joe Turley free kick from the right touchline was headed over at the near post by Dunton.
Around the mid-point of the half Shepherd had a shot blocked for a corner kick that Lee headed back across goal and Bennett fired over. Almost immediately Cirencester were awarded another corner kick and this time Lee headed towards the right post where Irving headed it back across goal resulting in another couple of corner kicks that were defended and fired over the bar respectively.
A few minutes later Cirencester were back again as Irving laid the ball back to Dunton who delivered it into the visitor’s box where it bounced over Bennett and Shepherd without contact in the strong wind.
Leading up to the 80-minute mark Messenger volleyed over the bar from the edge of the Highworth box, Sambu twisted and turned before his shot was diverted for a corner kick and Irving collected a long punt forward to shoot over the bar.
Two minutes later the deadlock was broken as Lee fed Dunton who sent a cross to the far-right post where Shepherd headed against the post with the ball rebounding towards the centre of the goal for AIDAN BENNETT to head into the net from a few yards. 1-0.
Shortly afterwards Benjamin Boulden delivered a free kick into the home box from the right flank and Harris punched it away for a corner kick from their left flank. This was played short to Charlie McCrae who sent it into the home box where it was unceremoniously launched downfield for Irving to collect and drive forward for a potential 1v1 with Case but a covering defender managed to get back and partially block his shot enabling Case to collect.
Six minutes after the opening goal Alves sent a cross from the right flank to the far-left post where CHARLIE McCRAE arrived to powerfully head across goal and inside the right post to level the score. 1-1.
In ‘added-time’ Cirencester threatened again as Shepherd fired wide of the left post and a Sambu cross was headed over by Lee.
Full Time: 1-1
A difficult match due to the very strong cross-wind that affected the quality of play to spoil, as a spectacle, what could have been an interesting local derby.
Attendance: 203 Referee: Thomas Green
Cirencester Town:
1. Alex Harris
2. Will Christopher
3. Ellis Dunton
4. Joe Turley
5. Jake Lee ©
6. Josh Nelmes
7. Adulai Sambu
8. Reegan Messenger
9. Levi Irving
10. Joe Shepherd
11. Aidan Bennett 82
12. Kenneth Mills
14. Nick Hancock (Reegan Messenger-73mins)
15. Andy Lewis (Joe Turley-73mins)
16. James Mortimer-Jones
Highworth Town:
1. Samuel Case
2. Daniel Hill
3. Harvey Fox
4. Oliver Case
5. Joah Hall
6. Fabian Stanislas
7. Benjamin Boulden
8. Oliver Rejek
9. Daniel Grieve
10. Sol Pryce ©
11. Miguel Alves
12. Daniel Drewett
14. Charlie McCrae Oliver Rejek-82mins) 88
15. Ben Holder (Daniel Hill-79mins)
16. Kyran Driscoll
17. Michael Alexander (GK)