Les Phillips Cup Preliminary Rd

Malmesbury Victoria 2, Bishops Lydeard 4

A CLINICAL hat-trick from young Charlie Wilson paved the way for Bishops Lydeard to set up a first round Les Phillips Cup tie after they got past a weakened but resolute Malmesbury Victoria at the Flying Monk Ground on Saturday afternoon, writes Kerry Miller.

Despite at one point being 4-0 up, Lydeard were forced to hang on after losing Tom Stone to a red card as the home side scored twice and were all over Lydeard for large parts of an enthralling second half.

Malmesbury were without half their side through suspensions, injuries and no less than two stag weekends while the clubhouse was full of crutches and looked more like the green room from Holby City before the game.

The warm day and good playing surface were conducive to attacking play and that is exactly how the game panned out as both sides went for it with no sign of taking cup football easy.

Wilson was soon among the action when he almost charged down home keeper Adam Clatworthy’s clearance before at the other end Keiran Jones shot over from a direct free-kick.

Wilson was not to be denied, however, and in the eighth minute a defensive error gave him time to move forward and shoot under Clatworthy to put Bishops Lydeard ahead.

Vics wasted two free-kicks from good positions before Bishops went looking for more as Jake Quick’s cross was just hacked away by Clatworthy and Callum Flaherty nodded over.

On the half hour Russell’s lofted free-kick appeared to be heading in until it was cleared off the line from under his bar by Flaherty, and Lydeard took advantage of the let off moments later when Luke Redrup’s superb cross to the far post was crashed home on the volley by Wilson to put his side 2-0 up.

Vics reacted well and Shane Bumfrey found the net but Mark Eburne’s  offside flag was up. 

With Vics looking to half-time to regroup and lick their wounds, Quick was true to his name as he charged down another Clatworthy clearance and Redrup’s inch perfect lob from wide on the right hand side eluded everybody to nestle in the bottom cormer and make it 3-0.

After the break Vics showed they were not going to conceded defeat and Sam Parker brought a fine save out of Carreau before Jamie Packer’s cross brought a bullet header from Ben Robinson which was inches away from a classic own goal.

As they looked to get back into the game Parker had a header cleared off the line, but all the hard work came to nothing minutes later when a long cross caused confusion in the home defence and Wilson crashed home the loose ball from 20 yards to complete his personal treble and make the score 4-0.

Against all the odds the game took another turn with more than half an hour still to go when Parker wriggled clear on the edge of the area only to be hauled back by Stone, who was shown a red card by referee Steven Benchley.

Bumphrey then nodded into the empty net after good pressure from Packer and, following a scrappy spell midway through the half, Josh Hughes launched an audacious lob which dropped in to make it 4-2 against the 10 men with 15 minutes left.

Malmesbury still charged forward and teenage striker Joe Tranter brought a save out of Carreau late on but in the end Lydeard held on to take the win back down the M4 and M5 and prepare to travel to Bishops Sutton on Tuesday evening.

Toolstation Western League Premier Division

Cribbs 1, Wellington 0

WELLINGTON'S tough start to life in the Toolstation Western League Premier Division continued as they were beaten by 10-man Cribbs.

Charlie Aldom scored the winning goal for the hosts, who were a man light for 55 minutes but managed to hold on to all three points.

Welly's fifth defeat in six league matches leaves them 15th ahead of next weekend's trip to Hengrove Athletic.