UNSTOPPABLE JODY NOTCHES HAT-TRICK AS BEDFONT GIVE CIREN A TESTING MATCH

Cirencester Town 5

Bedfont Green 2

Bedfont Green played clever, adventurous football but could not defend Cirencester Town set pieces and Jody Bevan took advantage to notch a neat hat trick.

Mr Hughes had both Chris Thompson and Scott Mason still not fully fit. He put Hosky on in place of Brown to give him more time to recover from the torrid battering with Mangos. Griffin was still not quite fit enough to start and Keith Knight went on to the bench to replace Lee Stevens - the Development team were playing a local derby with Ciren United from 2pm so he was using his veterans today!

Mr Bates and Mr Grant changed their line up from Wednesday at Hungerford, when Bedfont had skated past a battling but unimaginative Crusaders. Speedy youngster Jon-Jo Bates got his first start, and Lee Grant was on in place of the injured midfielder Gavin Hart. They clearly intended to use pace up the flanks to get at Ciren.

The plans took an early, unwelcome blow. In the first sustained Ciren pressure on Bedfont, the lively Rob Hoskin collected from a neat pass by Etheridge on the edge of the box, came to meet the ball and spun to nip inside Phil Merritt and was away clear on goal. Brought down from behind he seemed to handle the ball but Merritt had to walk. Jody Bevan duly scored from the spot on 6 mins.

Somehow, Ciren make playing against 10 men hard for themselves. Bedfont were determined and effective, with Roy Byron outstanding in midfield, as Ciren huffed and puffed to try and cement their advantage. Far too hurried trying to move the ball through midfield, their full backs did not offer wide support and the front three found themselves playing too narrow or having to chase optimistic forward punts. All they had were the massive throws that Etheridge plants to great effect but with Baddeley very alert beside James Ward the visitors kept everything out.

More and more, Bedfont were making breaks and controlling the ball well, with the mobile Russ Miner an effective fulcrum with the speedy Jon-Jo Bates and elusive Chris Henry supporting him valiantly. It gave them a foothold and they worked a goal against a hesitant defence.

A corner was only half cleared, Bedfont were first to the ball going out of the box and when Byron fed Chris Henry a neat pass he tricked his way into the box and shot. His effort was mishit and trickled in but was neatly deflected past Bath by the unmarked Russell Miner for 1-1 on 21 minutes.

Ciren were still looking distinctly second best but just about managed to curb the rampant Bedfont front runners. Then on 29 minutes Jack Turner came for and dropped a Sean Wood corner cleverly placed to tempt the keeper. Lyndon Tomkins had a bang and the ball was in the net. The young keeper made two good saves as Ciren finally started to play football but Jody Bevan beat him with a peach of a header on 40 mins off another Wood corner.

Turner, on loan from Wimbledon, made four outstanding stops off close in shots within the first five minutes of the restart but again Jody Bevan left him helpless on 52 minutes, nodding a return pass into the corner of the net following a free kick. Minutes later Turner made a blinding reaction stop as Bevan, from no more than 5 yards out, deflected a snorting Etheridge shot.

Bedfont switch their players in an attempts to pose new problems for Ciren, Miner coming off hobbling for the speedy McLeish and White and Henry being replaced a few minutes later by Sentance and Samuel, another tricky forward. Within a few moments it got a result.

Aaron McLeish scored on 68 minutes, nipping in to deflect a long free kick under the bar, as Bath cleared his defence out of the way as he came out to claim but got there too late as the lad timed his run spot on and kind of shoulder huffed the ball over him. It was a sloppy goal and somewhat irritated the Ciren dugout.The defence had been playing unbalanced and Mr Hughes popped Zak Westlake on clearly with instructions to get himself up and supporting. And so he did, with Sean Wood in particular relishing an outlet other than trying to batter a way through the middle.

Matt Sysum has had eight chances to score with his head so far this year and not yet managed to get the ball into the net. This time his positioning was perfect. Again Sean Wood slotted over a testing corner, Jody Bevan challenged high at the near post to flummox Turner and Matt Sysum was coming in unmarked on the run to thump gleefully home from close range on 78 minutes.

Back in control, Ciren saw the game out on the attack, with Keith Knight notching up his 4th decade in senior football as he came on to steady the endgame. Sub Fred Ward, scampering wide right from his patrol point in midfield, was offering more width and Ciren again were making chances, just about cleared by Bedfont. But Bedfont could still have notched one more time. Careless play in midfield saw the ball given away.

Byron, who had been much more closely controlled by Reid in the second half, this time had a moment to pick his pass. Controlling, turning, he slotted McLeish through a high Ciren backline. Bath was alert and out quickly to get to the ball and half deflect it away and must have been relieved when McLeish shot too hurriedly and spooned wide of a gaping net from 20+ yards.

I have no idea why Ciren sometimes retreat into a defensive shell when they are bossing the flow in a game. First half especially, both Sys and Pritch stayed close in to the back line and gave few targets for set up passes. Though, given that once again Chris Henry had shown how much he is capable of, maybe the defence were wary and wanted to be close enough to him to make sure he kept his head down and was shepherded into blind alleys.

Bridgwater coming up next - in my opinion, one of the teams capable of playing really penetrating football and based on two rocks in the middle of the defence. It will be somewhat of a season defining contest, this one.

Ciren: Matt Bath, Matt Sysum, Mark Pritchett, Neil Griffiths (c) [Zak Westlake 69], Sean Wood, Lyndon Tomkins, Jamie Reid [Fred Ward 80], Tom Etheridge, Jody Bevan, Jason Welsh [Keith Knight 81], Rob Hoskin subs: Scott Griffin, Carl Brown

Bedfont: Jack Turner, Lee Morley, Tom Baddeley, Phil Merritt (c), James Ward Roy Byron, Lee Grant, Craig White [Billy Sentance 66], Russell Miner [Aaron McLeish 60], Jon-Jo Bates, Chris Henry [Aaron Samuel 68] subs: Jim Major, John Constant

Ref: Mr J Law, Worcester Over the years we have had him several times and he is always consistent. Did not have his usual top of the line game today and had to make a horrible decision so early on that he would have known it would have spoiled what was set to be a really good match. Credit to Bedfont; many teams would have roundly abused him but after their initial disappointment got on with their job and let him do his job very well.

Att: 87 Very disappointing, though perhaps Swindon, Cheltenham and FGR at home kept our casuals occupied elsewhere. Green brought a cheerful half dozen, very supportive of their team, though a couple of them did get irritated when the barbs from The Muppetts found a target.

MoM: The vote did range across all the clubhouse fans. Interesting that several also mentioned the BG keeper Turner and the little forward Henry as standing out today. But when they turned their attention to our vote the overwhelming majority went for Jody Bevan.

On a side note, the Bedfont team also had their vote. I was much entertained when they presented a tiny shot glass of Baileys to the winner with the words "Well, skip, for your outstanding five minutes, the lads reckon you're our MoM". Now, there is a team in good heart and I suspect next year they will be up there challenging.