Report by Jon Green

Paulton opened up their league campaign with an away trip to Dorchester Town, on paper, a real baptism of fire for this new look squad.

The opening moments were dominated by Dorchester as they moved the ball around crisply fashioning an early chance. But the visitors began to come back into the game and in the tenth minute earned their first chance when Brandon Bak was able to turn on the edge of the box and get a shot away. The keeper needed to make a save although it didn’t test his too much.

Seconds later, Paulton should have had the lead when Jack Dancey squad a low cross but it somehow evaded the attempts to poke the ball in.

Frustratingly, the hosts took the lead three minutes after. A corner was forced which was launched in which unfortunately Archie Matthews spilled allowing William Spetch an easy tap in at the far post.

The game slowed somewhat after the goal with Dorchester doing most of the pushing, however, Rovers looked like they could produce chances from counter attacks. Matthews made up for his earlier mistake in the 37th minute when he somehow managed to keep out a shot after a scramble.

The early minutes of the second half followed a similar pattern with the hosts holding much of the possession. But again, Rovers worked their way back into the game an during a fifteen minute spell should have been level and arguably even ahead.

Firstly, in the 52nd minute, Alfie Kelleher crossed from the left and Brandon Bak poked the ball just wide. This was soon followed by a shot from Will Osborne that the keeper just managed to get his fingertips to to push the shot wide. And again, moments later, Jamarni Langlais played a perfect ball through to Brandon Bak to send him one on one with the keeper. Agonisingly, his shot bobbled and struck the post running away to safety.

So it was somewhat against the run of play that Dorchester doubled the lead when Ethan Taylor was able to head a cross in at the far post. The goal took the wind out of Rovers and Dorchester played out the game looking the more likely to score another.

Many supporters would have been fearing the worst after Saturday’s lacklustre performance in the FA Cup but despite the loss, there will be plenty of good things to take away from the game.

Next Up:
Saturday 15th August, Slimbridge (H] @ 3pm
FA Trophy Preliminary Round