WESTERN FOOTBALL LEAGUE

Ivybridge Town 0 Shepton Mallet 1 and St Blazey 0 Ivybridge Town 2

A lack of the necessary finishing touch in front of goal proved costly for Ivybridge Town as they lost 1-0 at home to Shepton Mallet in the Jewson Western League on Saturday (September 14), writes Graham Hambly.

Overall, it was an evenly contested match with both sides creating some promising scoring opportunities.

Ivybridge were looking to extend a five-match winning run including an equally impressive record of not having conceded a goal in those five games.

Shepton Mallet produced the goal that ended both those records in the 77th minute when Joel Sisson popped up to head the only goal of the game following a well-directed free kick from Cam Allen.

It was the first time Ivybridge goalkeeper Kane Gregory had been beaten since Victor Odiaka scored in the 81st minute of the FA Cup game at home to Tavistock on August 17 – a total of 536 minutes without conceding a goal. In fact, Gregory might have kept out Sisson’s header, but he slipped as he moved to cut out the header.

Ivybridge still had opportunities to have got back into the game but failed to take advantage of some decent scoring chances through their lack of composure in the final third.

Owen Pritchard was a constant threat in Ivybridge’s attacking moves and took the team’s Man of the Match award with Gregory close behind him.

Ivybridge joint manager Wayne Gamble admitted that it was possibly a tactical mistake to try winning the game when it might have been better to settle for a point.

He said: “It might have been a bit hasty trying to push on and win the game when we could have been a lot more solid.

“We were beaten by a good side. Shepton Mallet have some experienced players, but I felt a draw would have been a fair result.”

Rewinding a few days and new signing Jake Miller scored on his debut as Ivybridge Town extended that aforementioned winning run to five games with a 2-0 victory away to St Blazey on Wednesday evening (September 11).

Ivybridge broke the deadlock in the 65th minute with a goal from Miller, who came on as one of five substitutes for Ivybridge.

That was followed two minutes later by a strike from Ollie Aplin, who scored his first league goal since re-joining the club during the summer.

The win at Blaise Park completed a double triumph for Ivybridge, who secured a 3-1 victory away to St Blazey in the FA Cup earlier this season.

Gamble’s side moved up into the top half after this away win but then fell back below the middle mark with the defeat to Shepton Mallet.