Mangotsfield Utd 0 - 1 Paulton Rovers

Report by Jon Green

Rovers' good form in the preseason schedule continued with a victory at 'The Mangos' although in truth, the game never really reached the entertaining highs of the previous fixtures.

The first half in particular saw little goal mouth action at either end and with most of the play revolving around the midfield, neither team showed a cutting edge to break down the opposition defence. There were a couple of brighter moments when Trialist had a couple of half chances that made the Mangotsfield keeper work and a Rovers' looping header from a corner that... didn't.

The second half was a better affair with the visitors taking much more of the possession and making the Mangotsfield defence work that much more. However, it still took until the 56th minute for the Rovers faithful to get anything to shout about. Trialist was brought down in the box between two Mangotsfield players but the referee waived the protests away.

Eight minutes later, Rovers did win a penalty when a cross from the left was allowed to bounce in front of the goal but only up into the outstretched arm of a 'Mangos' defender. The normally impeccable spot kicker, David O'Hare, had a rare fluff and put the ball over the bar.

In the 71st minute, Rovers finally made the breakthrough. After neatly moving around the midfield, the ball was laid back to Jacy Dancey who placed a long pass forward into the right side of the box. Kye Simpson, under some pressure, neatly took the ball down made some space to put a cross along the six yard box which Joe Morgan latched onto to slide the ball home. It was the best move of the game and deserved to break the deadlock.

The rest of the game played out with Rovers doing most of the pushing with only odd moments of danger coming from Mangotsfield. With a number of changes to the starting line-up for each game, it's not surprising that consistency in performance will be hard to find and another win against a tough opponent should always be received well.

Rovers now have three home games in a row. The final preseason friendly is this coming Saturday 29th July against Corsham Town, then the season proper kicks off with an FA Cup Extra Prelim Round clash against Thatcham Town on 5th August. The following Saturday 12th August, the league campaign gets underway when Melksham Town are the visitors. All games kick-off at 3pm.