Pre-season friendly

Taunton Town 2, Exeter City 2

TAUNTON Town fought back from two goals down to share the spoils with Exeter City in a pre-season friendly at the Viridor Stadium.

Trailing to goals from former Peacocks loanee Joel Randall and Matt Jay, superb second half strikes from Dan Sullivan and Andrew Neal ensured the hosts earned a draw from a keenly fought encounter.

Taunton, missing captain Matt Wright and midfielder Ryan Brett, lined up with Sullivan alongside new boy Neal up front against a visiting side featuring a mixture of first-team regulars and youth prospects.

In front of a bumper crowd of 901, the League Two side dominated possession in the early stages but created little in the way of clear-cut chances, with Tristan Abrahams choosing the wrong pass when City broke quickly on 13 minutes.

City made their possession pay on 25 minutes as Randall opened the scoring against his old club, slotting past Lloyd Irish after Matt Jay won the ball back on the halfway line and put the youngster in on goal.

Taunton had their first sniff of an opening five minutes later as Sullivan was played in over the top, but the frontman was crowded out by visiting defenders and his tame shot was easily held by James Hamon.

The Grecians should have doubled their lead shortly before the interval, only for Lloyd Irish to stand tall and deny Jay after Abrahams – who had earlier made himself unpopular with the home faithful by clattering Nuno Felix - played the diminutive striker clean through.

The second half began with Pierce Mitchell, Ben Adelsbury and Sullivan each trying their luck from range with varying degrees of success; only Adelsbury’s dipping volley forced a save out of Hamon.

Town were growing into the game, however, and came closer still on 53 minutes when Neal tried an overhead kick that rolled narrowly wide.

But City rode the storm and went two up when Jay atoned for his earlier miss with a fine finish, curling into the top corner from 20 yards on the hour.

The hosts hit back with a super strike of their own shortly afterwards, Sullivan firing a half-volley into the corner from the edge of the area to set up a grandstand finale.

Taunton’s hopes of forcing an equaliser were raised when the visitors brought on six youngsters (and veteran goalkeeper Chris Weale) for the final quarter of the match, and it arrived in spectacular fashion when Neal smashed past Weale from 25 yards.

Neither side looked particularly like fashioning a winner in the closing stages, but this was a valuable workout for Taunton against strong opposition.

In Neal they look to have a striker who will score goals for fun at Southern League level, while the defence was solid and well marshalled by Keith Emmerson.

Next up for the Peacocks is the visit of Tavistock on Tuesday, July 31.

Taunton Town: Lloyd Irish, Pierce Mitchell, Nuno Felix (Aysa Corrick), Ben Adelsbury, Keith Emmerson, Shane White, Ollie Chamberlain, Josh Nelmes, Dan Sullivan (Douglas), Andrew Neal, Matt Buse

Exeter City: James Hamon, Will Dean, Jimmy Oates, Luke Croll, Craig Woodman, Archie Collins, Jordan Tillson, Jack Sparkes, Joel Randall, Matt Jay, Tristan Abrahams.

Substitutes: Harry Kite, Jordan Dyer, James Dodd, Alex Hartridge, Josh Key, Max Smallcombe, Ben Seymour, Chris Weale