MATCH REPORT: Yate Town 0-2 Wimborne Town

Yate Town 0

Wimborne Town 2

Sat 17th February 2024

Goals: Lovell, Burrows

Att: 384

Wimborne produced one of their best performances of the season to return to the top of the table. Two goals in three first-half minutes by Jack Lovell and Matty Burrows put the Magpies in control, as they restricted the division’s form team to just one shot on target.

Manager Tim Sills brought Matty Burrows and Cam Munn into his starting line-up. Reserves’ Captain Sonny Pike was one of the strong-looking bench.

On paper this looked a tricky task for Tim’s team. The Bluebells were on an unbeaten ten game run, which had taken them to within one point of the play-off spots; they’d scored sixteen in their last four home games; and recent signing Nick McCootie had bagged nine goals in eight games. So it was not surprising that Daren Mullings’ team started confidently on the good-looking Lodge Road surface. Twice McCootie went on a charge down the left wing to pull-back dangerous balls from the by-line, and Ross Flitney bravely dived at the feet of Lewis on the same trajectory. The home side had the better of the possession in a cagey opening fifteen minutes as the visitors felt their way into the game. However I must tell you of one moment of outrageous skill by Cam Munn in the opening moments of the game. On the right touch-line, he killed a high-ball stone dead to draw gasps from the crowd – keep your eyes on this young man!

As Wimborne grew into the game, an Oakley Hanger free-kick was punched away by Sainsbury who chased after the half-cleared ball to sent it downfield, and a second free-kick, this time on the right, was taken short but didn’t produce a shot on goal either. However, a third free-kick just after the half-hour mark, resulted in the opening goal. Jack Lovell timed his run and jump to head Matt Neale’s delivery into the net. After Ben Scorey had used his body to prevent a cross or a corner, the visitors scored a second two minutes after the first. Lovell challenged for a high ball in the centre-circle, then played a through ball down the inside-right channel for Matty Burrows. His speed took him clear of defenders to dink the ball over the diving keeper from just inside the box. It could have been three five minutes later when Lovell’s challenge for a high ball with the keeper gave Munn the chance to lob into the empty net from forty yards, but the ball bobbled at the crucial moment and his effort scared the watching birds more than the watching defenders.

Skipper Sam Jackson made a crucial block after another McCootie pull-back, but it was the visitors who looked the more likely to add to their tally with Lewis Beale and Harry Morgan combining well on the left. On the other wing, Burrows speed and trickery was causing his full-back problems.

Yate were asking questions of the Magpies’ defence at the start of the second-half. Billy Walker cleared a cross, Munn dispossessed McCootie, Neale stopped a midfield run, Jackson stepped i to intercept, Walker beat McCootie in the air – twice, Scorey made a brilliant block as his winger raced into the area, Scorey won a tackle, Walker intercepted, Jackson tackled. But it wasn’t until the sixty-third minute that the Bluebells forced Flitney into a save. McCootie fired a free-kick on the left of the “D” low past the end of the defensive wall for the big stopper to save and hang onto the ball just inside the post.

The visitors always looked capable of getting a third. Scorey went on a run down the left, Walker’s header was an easy catch for Sainsbury, and Munn’s snap-shot was at a comfortable height. The midfield harried and hassled, but it was the names of Walker, Jackson and Scorey who dominated my notes. They tackled, headed, intercepted and cleared like a top defensive unit.

This was a terrific controlled performance by Wimborne against the form team of the division. That’s three successive away victories, and our fourth in 2024. Next up it’s Cribbs at New Cuthbury – and you won’t want to miss that one.

Match stats:

Wimborne: Flitney, Hanger, Walker, Jackson (capt), Scorey, Neale (Carmichael 65), Morgan, Munn (Hoey 90+1), Beale, Burrows, Lovell (Baker 81)

Unused subs: Griffin, Pike

Attendance: 384