What a fortnight for Peasedown Albion. On Tuesday, they played Bath Villa in the Semi-Final of the Clark Cup, and after the game was drawn at full-time it went to penalties, with stand-in goalkeeper, Scott Newton, saving three of Bath Villa’s spot kicks, putting them in the Final by winning 4–2.
In the Final at Radstock they played a very young Chilcompton Reserves team, and won 4–0. Goals came from Lee Gould, Danny Mitchell, Scott Baker and Rico Sobers.
Then it was the big game – the Final of the Somerset Intermediate Cup against Watchet Town Reserves, played as it has been for a few years at Cheddar.
In the first half, there was very little goalmouth action at either end of the pitch. In a rare raid on the Watchet goal after some close passing, Lee Gould was left on his own to drive the ball into the corner of the net. In the second half, Peasedown came more into the game. It looked as if the final score would be 1–0, but a bizarre six minutes of extra time were added – who knows where that came from?!
The ball was cleared by the Watchet defence into the crowd – the Referee gave the throw-in to them, and down the other end a free-kick was given, with Watchet scoring, taking the game into extra time.
The drama didn’t stop there. Mathew Seviour made some very important substitutions, bringing on fresh legs, which certainly made a big difference.
Mid-way through the first period of extra time, Peasedown were denied what looked like a nailed-on penalty, given outside the box. It didn’t matter, as expert free-kick taker, Lee Gould, stepped up to fire an unstoppable shot past the Watchet goalkeeper. Lee was named Man of the Match at the final whistle.
It was now end-to-end stuff, and Peasedown should have been given the chance to go further ahead, with a blatant penalty appeal tuned down. It was wrapped up in the last five minutes by the lively Aaron Vine – after bursting through the Watchet defence, he forced the goalkeeper into making a save, but the ball fell to the player again, who turned on a sixpence to place the ball into the empty net.
Another change by the management committee this season was to play the Semi-Finals of the Charity Cup on one afternoon at Peasedown Albion’s ground. What a great success this proved to be – a large crowd attended both games on a lovely sunny afternoon, witnessing twelve goals between the two games.
First up was Coleford Reserves versus Radstock Town A, and what a game this proved to be. Coleford went one-up through Lance Cray, but back came Radstock, with two goals to go in front. Macaulay Fisher scored to level the scores, with Lance Cray scoring the winner late in the game.
The other game was between last year’s winners, Bath Villa, and League Two champions, Evercreech. Evercreeech went 1–0 up after ten miutes, but Bath Villa, playing well, came back with goals from Lee Rudland and Tom Lewington, giving them a 2–1 lead at half-time.
Second half goals from Ryan Rutland, Jack Lewington and a penalty from Cain Robinson put Bath Villa 5–1 up, with Evercreech scoring a consolation goal near the end.
Bryn Hawkins