Bristol Manor Farm 1 Tavistock AFC 2
The Lambs good form continues with this victory on the road, that sees them retain the last of the play-off positions as teams above and below them faltered, with only Bashley maintaining the challenge writes Eric Pinch.
Josh Oak returned in goal with Dan Evans keeping his central defender’s position in place of the suspended Taylor Scarff.
There were some good chances for both sides to open the scoring during the first half, but all to no avail.
The Lambs’ Ed Harrison, fired high and wide in the opening minutes; Manor Farm’s Harry Lucas, on seven minutes, completely messed up his effort; and the hosts’ Jake Gosling’s effort after a period of pressure was easily dealt with by Oak.
The home side’s keeper Ben John then did well to prevent Harrison getting a shot down low to his left and as a consequence, conceded a corner. The Farm came the closest to opening the scoring on 20 minutes when Gosling’s free kick out wide fizzed across the area for Oak to get a touch and Warren Daw, for the Lambs, would see his effort saved.
Tavi were then very lucky as Evans’ back pass to Oak was under hit which gave a chance to Ben Bament, Evander Grubb and Luco Ponsillo all in succession, but some stout defending from Oak, and Evans clearing off the line, kept the score equal.
The Lambs finished the stronger at the end of the first half with Liam Prynn seeing two efforts go straight to the keeper on 37 and 45 minutes.
End to end action from both sides, with both unfortunate not to go in with a goal or two at half time.
Ponsillo had half a chance on the hour but his effort was blocked, before the Lambs took the lead on 67 minutes with a well taken goal when Brandon Pursall rolled the ball into the area for Prynn to set up Tallan Burns, who created a bit of space to drill his effort inside the post.
It was not long before Tavi doubled their score on 70 minutes. Harrison’s free-kick, which was driven in low, was headed home at the near post by Prynn
to put the Lambs in the driving seat. But it became a nervy last 10 minutes as the home side clawed a goal back, when from a Grubb corner to the near post, Bament headed home despite the efforts of Oak to keep it out of the net.
The Lambs had a further chance to increase their lead on 85 minutes as Evans’s free kick found sub Adam McPherson, only for his header to be saved by John.
And the Lambs survived four minutes of added time to record a fine victory that keeps their season bubbling along. It’s a tough run in with 10 games remaining; home and away to leaders Sholing and five more games against teams in the top half of the table. It all looks exiting as the season draws to a close.
Forthcoming fixtures
Sat 4th March Home to Hamworthy 3pm
