CIRENCESTER TOWN 3 v 0 PAULTON ROVERS

Paulton Rovers boss Tony Ricketts will rue his sides missed first chances totally dominating Cirencester Town who hit three in the second period to seal three points.
He made three changes to Saturday’s win over Stratford on Saturday rotating his squad with at least two matches each week over the next 6 weeks.

There were starts for Joe Chandler, Nuno Felix and Jake Mawford with Mario Mateus, Josh Ford and Sol Wheatley dropping to the bench.

Rovers had a golden chance in the first minute as a through ball from captain Darren Mullings was seized upon by Mawford who outpaced a static defence and tried to lob onrushing keeper Josh Langley and with the goal at his mercy saw the ball sail wide.

Then on 15 minutes Leon Jeanne took on his full back down the right and his cross was mishit by Nuno Felix who had looked certain to score. Aaron Brown then had a corner which caused panic in the home defence before the ball was cleared by captain Leigh Henry.

Town’s first chance was from Adam Connelly who blasted over from distance.

Another chance went begging after 19 minutes Jeanne split the Cirencester defence found Mawford whose shot beat Langley and hit the right hand post. Then he had another chance getting on the end of Mullings cross until closed down by the opposition defence.

Mawford then became provider setting up Felix who shot wide. Then on the half hour Jeanne shot wide following Brown’s free kick.

The veteran Charlie Griffin turned the Rovers defence until Chandler cleared the threat. The response came once again from Jeanne who wriggled through and saw his drive tipped over by Langley. From the resultant corner Alex Grimshaw headed over.

With so much dominance the second half was a question of could Paulton keep up the pace or could 'The Centurion's' hit back and unfortunately for the Somerset men it was the latter.

From the off, Griffin hit a shot straight at Paulton stopper Ben John then Griffin opened the scoring after 56 minutes as the ball bobbled around the Rovers penalty area and the former Swindon Town and Forest Green Rovers man shot past John.

Cirencester brought on Aiden Bennett and the lively winger was to make a major impact. On 69 minutes left Ellis Dunton found Bennett whose shot was turned by John for corner. Taken by Bennett on the left Dunton headed home completely unmarked to make it 2-0.

A rare Paulton foray saw Mawford shoot wide, but Dunton brought another save from John from a header.

However with minutes left Bennett broke down the right and his low cross was turned home by left winger Ollie Knight to make it 3-0.

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