JODY SCORES THE WINNER IN YET ANOTHER PULSATING MATCH WITH THE U'S

Cirencester Town 3

Abingdon United 2

Cirencester Town never do it the easy way but after yet another pulsating match with Abingdon United they got a hard earned win to take their unbeaten run to 11 games. A well worked opener seemed to give them the edge in a match played in a swirling gale. An Abingdon equaliser then a well worked goal to take the lead early in the second half had the U's on the edge of a win. But, switching formation and bringing the ball down to play on the deck had Ciren scoring through an unstoppable Lyndon Tomkins header with Jody Bevan clinching the win when he, and only he, was going to connect with a loose ball on 80 minutes.

I'd had a hairy five minutes before the match discovering I'd left my camera battery at home, managed to retrieve the situation with too many things to do and no time to do it and have MoB and DoB to thank for the pictures. Did brilliantly well to get the last 2 Ciren goals – most people, and I'm in that group - prefer to watch rather than try and keep a steady eye and track the ball into the net. Cheers, Mark and Dan.

Abingdon changed their team after the FA Cup match four days previously, fielding cup tied James Faulkner with the towering Luke Holden up front and dropping centre back Peirson with skipper Julian McCalmon slotting into the back line and young Pablo Hayden given the right midfield slot. Playing two dangerous and mobile wide players in the recalled Elliott Osbourne-Ricketts and Billy Beechers made it clear The U's were looking to get the League points.

Ciren had 3 on the injury list and Jason Welsh, Nick Dunn and Chris Williams unavailable. So Mr Hughes gave Liam Williams his first League start from the Academy at left back, replaced Carl Brown with the equally nippy cup tied Ryan Parker and slotted the versatile Lee Stevens into the midfield slot left by the suspended Jamie Reid. Mr Hughes was glad to slot Jody Bevan onto the bench after injury so Rob Hoskin again started up top, even though the Academy have an FA Youth Cup tie on Monday. Young Dan Wallington from the Development Team, who had earned his place in the squad from his work in their games and in training, made his first appearance on the bench to sit beside Jack Hopper from the Academy.

In a brisk opening it was Ciren who soon had the ball under control, with Ryan Parker twice sent scampering away down the right and surprising James Organ who found he had to cope with even more pace than Browner lays down. Within two minutes Abingdon had conceded two free kicks trying to contain the lad who Mr Hughes claims has to wear an Under11's training kit.

 On 5 minutes another free was conceded 35 yards out on the right. Parker took it, the Ciren heavy guns did an in and out drag that took the big Abingdon forwards all over the shop and as the ball came in Hosky, The Griff and Stevo had jinked away from their markers and were completely unmarked with Chris Thompson storming into the middle of the penalty area also in the clear.

Lee Stevens it was who was free at the point where the ball arrived and leapt to sidefoot acrobatically home then take an even bigger leap to celebrate while Griff jogged back to the middle with a Job Done, All Those Training Drills pay off smile on his face.And their 'keeps is abolutely disgusted with the marking.

On a horribly windy day, that was a priceless lead. Ciren attacked mercilessly, with Ryan Parker and the frisky Rob Hoskin giving Abingdon conniptions with their pace and movement. But, the admirable Julian McCalmon was holding his back line together, was giving Griff neither room to turn or the airspace to jump and the U's kept the shooting chances down to optimistic wafts into the grateful hands of Jon Beames.

Ciren looked steady in defence but in the swirling wind errors were inevitable. On 7 minutes James Faulkner had collected from Simon Goodrham in the right channel, skipped into space outside Lyndon Tomkins as he misjudged the flight of the ball and while Neil Griffiths attacked the cross to make sure he was first to the ball his clearing header screamed literally inches past the angle to avoid what would have been a spectacular OG. Elliot Osbourne Ricketts could have equalised on 25 minutes, getting sent away by a cunning Beechers pass inside Zak Westlake, keeping his cool to step outside the quickly recovering Zak only to find Matt Bath reacting to block his firm, unchallenged 12 yard shot.

But the keeper was beaten 4 minutes later when again Faulkner went for a channel ball down the U's right. He knocked it past Liam Williams, lost control, stumbled and went down unchallenged. But, the ref had seen a non existent trip. Much to the annoyance of the Ciren bench the defence ball watched rather than get their feet set to challenge, Faulkner was able to prod the cross down with his boot and Luke Holden popped in front of Williams to poke home at the far post.

With the swirling wind to face second half, Ciren's defence now had it all to do to win back that precious lead. The midfield, with Goodrham working his chubby little socks off to deny them space, had to work hard to get any time and space to do their thing though both

Rob Dean and Chris Thompson were working calmly to keep the front line moving whenever they managed to get a moment on the ball. Scott Griffin had his first shot on goal on 32 minutes, then reverse passed Ryan Parker in to scoot past and through three defenders and draw Beames into a superb near post all-enveloping smother on the ball as the shot came in.

Ciren finally got control again and a period of pressure, with the ball accurately transferred to red and black shirts, had Stevens again winning a free kick ball in the air with Beames grasping only for his deflection to drift just past the far post. A piece of lovely, crisp combination play ended with Ryan Parker picking out Rob Hoskin beyond the far post on 39 minutes. His aware nod back had The Griff at long last finally losing McCalmon clear 5 yards out. Perhaps too deliberately, he nodded for the angle but missed. It could have been game over..

Within 2 minutes of the second half, Ciren had instead conceded the lead. Lyndon Tomkins slipped as he covered James Faulkner wide on the left, Matt Bath reached the fierce low cross, Holden had an awful air shot but the ball deflected to Billy Beechers who notched from close in as the Ciren defenders plunged in unavailingly. Abingdon were delighted with that and for a period played in the zone as they tried to get the game away from Ciren.

Ciren played themselves back into the match but when Tomkins dived in and just managed to nudge the ball away from the irrepressible Beechers on 54 minutes it was only the referee right on the spot who was in a place to decide it was a fair if desperate challenge. The Abingdon bench went bananas but it was highly entertaining to hear Jon Beames, from 80 yards way, chuntering first at the lino then giving the ref full volume. The lad had been trying to ref the match from the off but all he did was entertain the Ciren lads behind his net.

A tactical switch on the hour, bringing on Jody Bevan to play up the middle with Griffin and putting Lee Stevens to full back, damped down the Abingdon flank surges. But it meant the Ciren midfield had to be on top of their game and both Rob Dean and Chris Thompson responded impressively. Aided perhaps by Goodrham running out of puff very visibly so early in the half. He had wasted his breath berating the ref just before the break and had pulled a card. Maybe he was having to be just a tad careful now but whatever the reason he had lost his impact.

Both teams battled away, both had thrusts just about cleared by the respective defences and Faulkner in particular was looking more and more of a threat for the U's. Bevan and Griffin were linking well and worked Lee Stevens, advancing bravely but riskily right upfield in support, into space 20 yards out. A placed shot might have counted but he tried a return pass, nicely weighted to slow up on the penalty spot but both Griff and Jody had gone on runs to take the defenders away.

Mr Hughes decided he needed to reward Ryan Parker for his full on workrate over the whole piece by giving him a rest and replace him with Development Team youngster Dan Wallington on 65 minutes to play wide right midfield.



The lad coming off got full recognition for his contribution from a knowledgeable crowd. He had played a cracker today. The change in focus and the extra energy in different parts of the pitch was enough to stretch the U’s defence beyond breaking point.

Tackle after tackle was being won as the Ciren midfield ignored their own breaking point and they overran the increasingly floundering U's midline. Accurate pass after accurate pass was going out to the flanks and into the channels with the movement of their targets more than rewarding the efforts of the midfield tigers.

There were now two more targets for them and the U's defence had to stretch wider to cope. Zak Westlake had been coming up the right but now made even more impact with Wallington providing another outball for thrusts on the Abingdon left flank of defence.

Hoskin had an equally good penalty shout as the earlier U's claim when he was put away into the gap by a lovely deflection by Griff off a rapier ground pass from Rob Dean. Again the referee was in the right spot to note that Jeff Brown had made the final touch to clear the ball as the striker tumbled in the box. The behind the goal speccies were convinced the ref was wrong but ref-on-the field Beames this time chose not to reprimand the arbitro.

Wallington had already been sending in a series of teasing crosses and Abingdon were having to contain the pressure and not managing to get their clearances beyond Chris Thompson who seemed to have radar in his boots and collected everything. When Griff forced Beames to punch clear at his far post Wallington's nigh on perfect corner on 69 minutes landed 8 yards out. Again Ciren had moved the Abingdon defence out of position with this time Lyndon Tomkins clear to plant an unstoppable header home under the bar.

Dean and Thompson were not now going to let this match slip away and another tactical switch had skipper Neil Griffiths breaking upfield, choosing his moments with Ciren in good position, with Westlake, Tomkins and Stevens left to mind the shop at the back.

Rob Dean constantly refused to let the U's out from the edge of their own area and forced their attack to come back and defend. Abingdon could not cope with accurate, quick Ciren passes on the ground. Griffin went close, Bevan had a shot charged down and Zak Westlake raced onto a Wallington return pass, danced inside two defenders and forced a superb far post save from Beames.

Wallington swung in another guileful corner to land in an awful spot for the defence, Tomkins was again in space but when the ball glanced off his head Neil Griffiths reacted much faster than Faulkner to send the ball back into the goal area. Tomkins again missed but Jody Bevan was already moving to meet the ball and turned it into the net from a yard out on 80 minutes.

If you look at the positioning in the sequence of pics you'll see that Jody was switched on all the way through that move and nothing, nothing at all, was going to stop him being first to that ball. It took a full minute for a very patient ref to unpeel Jody away from the delighted piley-on.

Abingdon flung forwards on in a desperate attempt to grab a point but Ciren defended sturdily, Zak Westlake and Lyndon Tomkins both covering and blocking goal attempts as Abingdon flooded their penalty area. Again, Ciren had played to the final moments of a match, again had adapted their game to deal with the conditions and extended their unbeaten run to 11 matches.

Now, in spite of all the effort and excitement of the previous week, those games are gone, the slate wiped clean and the lads will start again at training on Tuesday evening. Oxford City have a very good team and will be as optimistic, especially with their lad Steele scoring all 4 goals against Bedford yesterday. But we are also a very good team and we'll see what happens on the day when we visit New Court Stadium next Saturday.

Don't forget the next crop of Academy lads, including I expect the 3 who have featured for us this week, play Newport County at The Corinium on Monday night KO 7.30pm. That will be a treat if you like your togger played properly.

Cirencester: Matt Bath, Zak Westlake, Liam Williams [Jody Bevan 55] Neil Griffiths (c), Chris Thompson, Lyndon Tomkins, Rob Dean, Lee Stevens, Rob Hoskin, Scott Griffin, Ryan Parker [Dan Wallington 65] subs: Jack Hopper, Keith Knight

Abingdon: Jon Beames, Jeff Brown, James Organ, Pablo Hayden, Tom Franklin, Julian McCalmon (c), Billy Beechers, Simon Goodrham, Luke Holden, James Faulkner, Elliot Osbourne-Ricketts

subs: Ben Weedon, Anaclet Odhiambo, Richard Peirson, Justin Merritt, Conor Hunt

Ref: Mr , Pewsey We've had him before, quite some time ago, and he was even better this time. In the right spot for everything and helped by the work with his linos, despite the sidelines giving them grief from time to time. Missed, according to those watching, a penno for each side but in both cases got it right because while the attacker had tumbled big time the ball had been got away out of control of the attacker by the lunging defender. And all that without the aid of telly replay, eh?

Att: 127 A fair sprinkling of loyal U's fans, hopeful but not optimistic but fair play to them for making 2 trips within 5 days. That is real support. A few more than our usual own loyal core support came up on a horrible windy day, with a visible number of younger ones coming down and letting rip when they needed to give us the noise. Nice to see and hear, especially the fact that their behaviour was admirable.

MoM: once again after a team display like that a decision on which player, out of the whole bunch of 13 who got on the pitch, made the major contribution to a hard win was almost impossible. In my opinion, Chris Thompson just about stuck out ahead of the rest. He had a cracker. He got votes, as did every one of the 13. Lyndon Tomkins, Thommo, and Neil Griffiths chased home the winner on the club house vote, Rob Dean