Following a convincing 5 – 1 win at Bishops Lydeard hopes were high for another victory over the visitors, Wincanton Town. On a very wet Saturday afternoon, and with good preparation work on the pitch a few days earlier play was possible. The first half saw a lacklustre performance by the home side with few chances created. The game finished with just one goal which was scored by the Somerset side.

Warminster’s keeper Nathan Ball made a good save in the fifth-minute diving high to his left to push the ball out for a corner and deny Louis Irwin a goal. Wincanton’s only goal came in the 22nd minute, almost exactly at the halfway point of the first half. Nathan Ball had caught the ball in the box and from the edge of his penalty area kicked it deep into the Wincanton half only to find the head of a defender. This was then flicked on by another Wincanton player and fell favourably for Toby Cole who ran through the 2 central defenders and with just the keeper to beat, slotted the ball neatly past him with a low right-footed shot.

In the 32nd minute, Warminster went close when Martin Johnson’s curling shot went just left of the bottom of the post. It would obviously take more effort from the Red & Blacks in the second half to get a result from this game.

Warminster did indeed ‘up their game’ in the second half and created more chances, putting the visitors under much more pressure than before. In the 53rd minute, Warminster’s closest chance of a goal saw their keeper, Sam Stroud palm the ball away from his top left corner and then have to scramble to his bottom right to push it away from creeping over the line. 

There was goal-line drama too at the Warminster end in the 68th minute when a hit Ball’s right-hand post, the rebound was then fired back and cleared off the line by the head of Ian Jeffery. The only remaining drama came with a series of yellow cards and the sending off of Wincanton’s Kris Hastings. It could be said that Warminster deserved a point from the game, and bearing in mind the visitors are second in the league a one-nil loss was not too devastating.   

Team: Ball, McFerran, Johnson*, Graham, De Silva, Jeffery, Miluk, Walton, Mortimer-Taylor, Butler*, Shanley*, 
Subs ( *used) Barnes* Churchyard, Lisowski, Fletcher*, Allan*