Somerset County League, Division One: Minehead 0-0 Wrington Redhill

Minehead hosted third placed Wrington on Saturday and the Irnham Road crowd was again boosted by a coach load of away supporters.

Wrington were quicker out of the blocks than The Blues, and within the first few minutes they had goal keeper Kyran Wilkins to thank for keeping the scores level with an important early save.

Minehead then seemed to be spurred into action, forcing a corner at the Irnham Road end and shortly afterwards centre forward Toby Waghorn managed to block a clearance from visiting keeper Rob Hannah, but the custodian was able to smoother the striker’s subsequent snap shot at goal. It was Waghorn again who caused the next problems to the Wrington defence but his header from a pin point cross went narrowly over the bar. The pacey striker then through the defence but his shot was again blocked by Hannah.

Both sets of players adapted well to the blustery arctic conditions and the crowd witnessed a largely evenly contested match which went from end to end throughout.

The second half became more ragged, and the visitors fell foul to a strict referee who managed to keep the game in order by sticking to his word when final warnings were made to players that contravening rules, and the passion that was evident throughout by both sides gave rise to four yellows being shown to the visitors and two to the hosts.

As the game reached the final stages both sides seemed go for broke as one goal was all that looked necessary to earn all three points, and both sides ended the game with their goal-keepers showing their qualities, with the save of the game coming in the final ten minutes when a shot from Wrington’s Luke Weeks which was arrowed towards the top corner expertly tipped over the bar by Wilkins.

Minehead: Kyran Wilkins, Ryan Wilkins, Ollie Hall, Louis Burge, Sam Heath, Will Singleton-Voss, Stefan Phillips, Josh Elston, Toby Waghorn, Ian Bellinger, Sam Jackson.

Subs: Scott Kivell (used) Liam Scheepers, Martyn Phillips, Lewis Breillat.

Man of the Match: Kyran Wilkins

Minehead are at home again next Saturday, this time hosting Bristol based Imperial, where Minehead gained a narrow 3-2 away win on the last day of August 2024. Manager Craig Carr will be hoping to field some of the regular players who were missing from Saturday’s lineup.