After being 3-1 up with seven minutes to go and then losing 4-3 at home to Artillery back at the beginning of the season, the Puriton boys were well up for this game and, after a bit of a blip in the last few games, manager Richard Jennings brought him self in for only the fourth time this season.
Puriton started brightly passing the ball around and making Artillery work very hard and, with only seven minutes on the clock, won a corner. Rich Harvey put a testing ball in which curled right into the bottom corner of the net with the help of a slight touch from an Artillery defender to make it 1-0 to United.
Puriton then pressed on and Player-Manager Rich Jennings took a cracking free kick from just outside the box, but it was well saved by Artillery keeper "Beaver" May.
Artillery then started to come back into the game and really put Puriton on the back foot. Then, in the 33rd minute, a bad defensive mistake duly allowed Artillery to equalise and they then pressed and pressed and young Liam May, from outside the box at an angle, somehow managed to curl the ball into the top corner for a fantastic goal that made the score 2-1 to Artillery at the interval.
Puriton came out in the second half with all guns blazing with Rich Jennings, Lee Mitchell and Rich Harvey all going close. Artillery were on the back foot and Puriton sub James Leader, who has been out for five months, played a great ball over the top for in-form striker Lee Mitchell to run on to and, with the defender pushing out wide, flicked it over him and rifled a shot from 18 yards into the top right hand corner for a stunning equaliser.
Both teams then went on pressing and pressing in an end-to-end climax to the game and Artillery almost managed to snatch a victory in the final minutes but were to be denied by an outstanding goal line clearance from Craig Evans.
Rich Jennings commented afterwards: "Artillery are a great team and we have gone there today and matched them all the way. We have a good young side and if we can play like that against a fantastic side we will finish the season strongly. It must have been a great game of football to watch, and the behaviour of the Artillery players was outstanding".
The man-of-the-match award is shared between Captain Lee Harvey and fellow centre back Ben Pollard.
Team - GK- Nathan Gill , LB - Llyod Hackling, RB - Craig Evans, CB - Lee Harvey, CB - Ben Pollard, LM - Rich Harvey, RM - Dean Taylor, CM - Rich Jennings (Player Manager), CM - Ryan Williams, ST - Lee Mitchell, ST - Darryl Taylor, Subs- James Leader , Not Used - Dan Jennings, Paul Court
(Story First Published: 07.02.05) |
