Tedburn St Mary move off the bottom with a hard fought 3-0 Win against a well organised Beer Albion Team.

 After a disappointing result last week and not getting what we deserved it was important we looked to get back to winning ways. 

With all the rain we have had over the last week or so we must congratulate the Beer groundman for working so hard to not only get the game on but making this one of the best playing surfaces in the league.

It wasn’t the greatest start for TSM, before the game with club captain Callum was out with an injured knee; mid-way through the warm Ethan Board off with a hamstring pull! We did however have a massive positive with Chim (Tedburn Pele) making his debut for TSM.

Tedburn St Mary looked to start the game with intent. Looking to press from the front and this got our reward with Leighton Green, pressing the left back who passed the ball back to the keeper with a little too much pace on the ball for it to roll into an empty net 1-0 to the Tedburn.

 The rest of the half was frantic with both teams trying to get control of the game; in all honesty both teams worked hard but lacked any real quality with both teams defending well. TSM tried to move the ball well and found our outlet to be out wide men. (Josh and Joe) who were a constant threat. Josh was really making their left back work hard with his direct play, unfortunately we couldn’t extend our lead despite creating more than the opposition.

 Half Time 1-0

 Second half was completely different, with the boys in midfield in particular, Rob and Nigel not giving the Beer players time to settle; this allowed the classy Brayden Morris to start dictating the play with some great movement and helping us dictate the play. (It was Brayden Morris who Beer supporters voted their man of the match so that tells you the influence he had in the game. They also nominating Josh our man of the match and Leighton)

 Brayden allowed us to get the ball forward and with the strong hold up play from Chim who showed his dominance against the bear defence. They could not find a way to stop Chim creating chances for the prolific Leighton Green who never had a great deal of clear cut chances until Chim, who held the defender off to feed Leighton, found space to pick the ball up 20 yards from goal to then hit an unstoppable left foot shot into the top corner to put TSM 2-0 up!

 We should have had a penalty when Leighton, who had started to find spaces, was sent a ball from Chim to race clear of the Beer defence only to be brought down. Not sure how but the referee waved away the protests of the TSM players and the faithful along the sidelines or the “Tedburn massive” as Cal would say!

 It was a role reversal this time with Leighton feeding Chim and with some great feet and composure to send the keeper the wrong way to slot the ball the other side Chim puts Tedburn 3-0 up with 25 minutes to go. Beer Albion never gave up and continue to create chances but the boys at the back Tim, Gav and Aiden defending so well and Matt pulling of some important saves to keep the lead to 3-0.

We did have more chances to pull further in front, this was with Jay coming into the frame from the bench to replace Joe after 70 minutes. Jay really gave us lots of energy and with a couple of great runs was unlucky not to hit the target.

 Chim was next to be replaced by Reuben who was straight into action! His first touch was a lovely pass over the top for Leighton who clearly high in confidence took a shot from 30 yards out with his stronger foot………We were expecting this to end the same as his shot 10 minutes before; unfortunately, the ball went for a throw in!!

 After 80 minutes Rob was starting to struggle, after coming back from injury but had covered every blade of grass on the Beer pitch. Up stepped experienced and reliable Elric to slot into midfield to help the other two lads try and shut up shop. Tedburn St Mary’s goal was tested by Beer but Tedburn stood firm with some unbelievable defending by all, we did ride our luck with the woodwork being hit a couple of times but we deserved the win to move Tedburn up to 10th.

 It was a fantastic team performance today and with more performances like this should see the Tedders start to move away from the bottom of the league.