TWO GOOD, LATE GOALS GET THE CENTURIONS A RARE WIN AT HIGHWORTH

Highworth Town 1

Cirencester Town 2

The Centurions were again missing injured or unavailable players and again were given a stern test by a lively Hellenic Premier squad. This time, having fallen behind to yet another comic goal, they managed to stay in the game. With a lot of their Development Team youngsters on the pitch late on, two pieces of accurate passing gave them a rare victory at Highworth.

Highworth have a pleasing mix of experience and youth, with two dangerous forwards in Matt Bennett and Alex Rudd and a midfield anchored by Ben Snook and Arthur Levitt. They spread the play across a slick pitch as they looked to dominate early on. Two former Centurions, Dan Hilder and Dan Thompson, were quick and effective in their work and combined to put pressure on Tom Etheridge on the left of the Ciren defence.

In the middle, Lee Stevens was calmness personified as he and Marvin Thompson kept the Highworth thrusts at bay and behind them Matt Bath dominated his area. Up front Jason Welsh, making his first pre-season appearance, was being closely marked by Stuart Pearson and making it difficult for Welsh. He was not quite managing to hold the ball up and set Scott Griffin and George Boon free.

Far too early in the match, Ciren were overhitting their passes in attempts to set the front runners free and making it easy for the Highworth backline to collect a stream of wayward passes and start counters. Bennett and Tony Joyce both had half openings but failed to finish with enough accuracy to make Matt Bath work. Slowly but surely Ciren steadied, with Bath constantly using Rob Dean at right back as the start point for the Ciren moves.

A series of low, carefully placed passes from the youngster was giving the Ciren front men good possession; in turn they were looking to put James Guthrie and George Boon in on the flanks. With Jamie Reid establishing a visible domination of the midfield loose balls, the pressure was building on Highworth.

It all came unravelled for Ciren on 30 minutes when Matt Bath came out to collect a speculative long ball bouncing in for the edge of his area. He set himself to head clear, misjudged and instead sent it looping up and inside for Matt Bennett to have an easy collect and tap in from 25 yards into an empty net.

The response from Ciren was feisty, matched by an equally feisty response from Highworth, but on 40 minutes Ciren at last unpicked the home defence. From Rob Dean to Guthrie back to Reid and then up to Griffin the passes were crisp and accurate.

Griffin sent Boon away on the left and as Ben Goodey rushed out to close down the cross Boon cut back to Welsh 15 yards out with Goodey by-passed. Perhaps wanting the satisfying feel of a full blooded shot on his boot, he mistimed his drive wide when on another day a sidefoot deflection would have been enough to notch the goal.

With 44 minutes gone Arthur Levitt reacted badly to a winning but biting Jamie Reid tackle, swinging his hands in with Reid responding in kind. Probably reflecting accurately most of the exchanges so far in the game, these were well off target but enough for Mr Flynn very wisely to signal immediate substitutions to the respective benches. On came Ellis Dunton into midfield and both teams needed to calm down at half time.

Again Highworth came out to pressure Ciren and again Thompson and Stevens were more than capable of containing them. Though Tom Etheridge was perhaps lucky to escape with no more than a word in his ear from Mr Flynn when he tumbled TJ Bohane with a haymaker of a tackle; Egg gives it everything, friendly or no, and the lad was not going to get past him.

A string of Ciren substitutions on the hour saw Lee Stevens and Egg the only players older than 16 in the backline, with Anselmo Carvalho now on to partner Jason Welsh up top with Max Etheridge and Jamie Guthrie the oldest remaining teenagers in the Ciren line-up. While there were perhaps understandably probably far too many passes hit out from the back and midfield to give Carvalho and Welsh any chance of meaningful possession, Highworth also were making substitutions.

What might have tipped the game their way instead led into quickfire exchanges of possession with Ellis Dunton standing out as the only player in the middle of the park willing and able to caress the ball and make sure his pass found a target. Jason Welsh made a huge impact now. Coaching, urging, talking, his team mates responded and slowly but surely began to gain control.

There were still moments of danger, and TJ Bohane got himself free on the near post to a Dan Hilder cross and should have made a better connection instead of deflecting past the far post. But James Guthrie, in the first half drifting inside and appearing to mark his defender, was now forcing him wider and exploiting the space his positioning was creating. And both Carvalho and Welsh were using him well, with Max Etheridge having a purple patch of winning possession and then keeping it.

Twice, three times Carvalho did very well even to get near optimistic passes sent in by James Robbins but it was clear that even though he speaks very little English he has something about him and is an instinctively cute footballer. Setting up James Guthrie outside the box, he wanted and went for the return pass to send Guths in on a one-two and made that internationally understood footballer's growl of disgust, annoyance, frustration when Guths did not read it and turned away.

On 73 minutes Ciren at last made their first set of connected, careful second half passes. Ellis Dunton collected in midfield from a typically astute clearing pass from Lee Stevens. Laying back to Max Etheridge, who had given him the word and was in acres of space, he went for the return and slotted it up to Walsh, coming off the defender 30 yards out.

His turn and pass gave James Guthrie a yard to go at the defender and swaying in then out he was past him and drove his cross low and hard for the edge of the 6 yard box. Anselmo Carvalho had seen it all happening from outside the penalty area but was already going at full speed and coming in to meet the ball. He was not going to let that chance go and made sure he got there first to equalise. Good team goal and very, very difficult for a team to defend.

It did not take long for Ciren to create the winner. James Robbins had been, perhaps optimistically, buzzing down the right flank asking for the ball then finding the pass overhit. But he persisted. On 81 minutes Anselmo Carvalho was far too quick for Kevin Tate, nipping in to take the ball past him off a lovely ground pass from Max Etheridge and immediately rolling the ball in behind the defence and down the right channel for James Robbins. He needed no second invitation, raced in and from 15 yards out cracked his shot in at the far post.

If Carl Brown had been watching he'd have been licking his lips. At last – a pass that is placed to beat a defence and not just a kick through and hope it connects with a runner. Jason Welsh knew exactly what had happened and the remaining minutes of the game were played with him urging the team to get and keep the ball. No more chances came but it ensured the team finished the game in control and much more pleased with their display than the shapeless mess on Tuesday night.

Highworth: Ben Goodey, Dan Thompson [sub 60], Stuart Pearson [sub 76], Kevin Tate, Arthur Levitt [sub 44], Dan Hilder, Ben Snook (c), Tony Joyce [sub 66], Alex Rudd, Matt Bennett [sub 66], TJ Bohane

Cirencester: Matt Bath, Rob Dean [sub 62], Tom Etheridge, Lee Stevens, Jamie Reid (c) [Ellis Dunton 44], Marvin Thompson [Chris Mills 66], George Boon [James Robbins 51], Adam Little [sub 62], Jason Welsh (c), Scott Griffin [Anselmo Carvalho 51], James Guthrie

Ref: Mr J Flynn, Calne Did an excellent job, especially when the match began to turn a little feisty, and missed absolutely nothing. By far the best player on the pitch tonight.

Att: 102 The away fans sweep was again way off, with Robert's 85 very ungenerous. Again, more than a fair few Centurions there. I imagine even more will be at Fairford next Thursday, nobbut more than a wobbly bike ride for Ciren.

Match Report will appear here shortly