Somerset Premier

Bridgwater Res 4 Watchet 5

WATCHET’S season ended in the sunshine at Bridgwater last Saturday, with a goal-fest where they came out on top by the odd goal in nine to guarantee them a third-place finish.

After trailing 2-0, Watchet were level by the interval and then twice led by two goals, but were pegged back on each occasion before holding out to win 5-4, with the decisive goal being put into his own net by a Bridgwater defender.

The home side took the lead in the first minute when Watchet were caught all over the place at the back, allowing Villis the chance to sweep the ball into a gaping net from 12 yards out.

The visitors struggled to recover from this shock and it needed a full length save from Adam Bishop to prevent the score being doubled.

Just when it seemed as though they were beginning to get their act together, Watchet received another setback when they were denied a free-kick of their own near halfway, and when Bridgwater went forward they were awarded a hotly-disputed penalty, which Duffy put away to make it 2-0.

Almost immediately the official blew for a spot-kick at the other end when a free-kick from Chris Sully saw Aaron Deeks go down under a challenge inside the area, and the striker got up to maintain his unblemished penalty record this season by finding the net via the inside of an upright.

The force was now with the visitors and they were back on level terms before half-time when Sully’s intended through ball for Deeks was partially intercepted, only for it to run back into his path and he poked home his second goal of the afternoon.

The recovery was complete within a minute of the restart, when a raking diagonal ball from Ben Robinson found Deeks going clear through the middle to nonchalantly lob the ball over the advancing keeper into the vacant net to complete his hat-trick.

Watchet were close to making it 4-2 in a goalmouth scramble, where more than one player looked odds on to score, but then Bishop made another smart save and home striker Young drove inches past the far post. With Jason Worth putting in another terrier-like performance in midfield the visitors gained some breathing space just past the hour when a perfectly-weighted cross-field ball from Brandon Walsh fell into Zac Ryder’s path and the keeper was unable to keep out his first time volley on the run.

Slack defensive work then led to Bridgwater making it 4-3 with Connick finding space inside the area to slot wide of Bishop.

Both sides made substitutions with George Dawson firing high and wide before home sub Champion looked to have sewn up the points for Watchet when he sent a header looping over his own keeper and just under the bar, and the official overruled a linesman flagging for offside.

The home side hit back to reduce the arrears again when Watchet failed to deal with a corner and Male set up a potentially nervous finale by netting from close range.

WATCHET : A Bishop B Robinson M Heywood J Milton C Sully J Worth C Jeromson B Walsh Z Ryder A Deeks A Clausen. Subs : G Dawson & L Webber (both used).