Minehead lose goalkeeper to injury in defeat at Wrington

The hosts started the game on the front foot and enjoyed more possession in the early stages.

As early as the first minute, they showed their intent and went close to opening the scoring when Harrison Campbell hit the foot of the post, but The Blues did manage attempts on goal themselves during the first half including a speculative 25-yard effort from Ollie Hall curled inches over the bar.

Shortly afterwards, Sam Jackson burst through the home defence after a perfect pass from Bertie Harvey-Larmar but his shot just cleared the bar.

The game remained end to end but Minehead were dealt a big blow on the half hour when goalkeeper Nathan Sheehan had to rush out towards a high, direct through ball.

With two strikers approaching him, he was forced to come just out of his box and jump high to head the ball before the first opponent could get to it.

With his initial header going up rather than clear of danger, he had to hurriedly jump again to head clear of the second striker, which he achieved, but landing awkwardly he injured his ankle tendons leaving Wrington’s Lew Wilkins able to shoot home into the unguarded goal.

Defender Charlie Disney took over the gloves with Minehead regrouping with substitute Jack Campbell-Farmer coming on as right back and Harvey-Larmar swapping to the left.

Early in the second half, Ollie Hall showed great perseverance in chasing a "lost ball" and having robbed the last defender, he expertly lobbed the keeper from a wide position to put Minehead back in contention.

With the game flowing from end to end, Wilkins was guilty of missing a simple opportunity to restore Wrington’s two-goal lead when presented with an open goal from a fairly central position inside the six-yard box.

After Blues substitutions saw The Blues bring on Andy Hall and Toby Waghorn, Disney made an acrobatic save to tip a close-range header from Milkins over the bar.

Soon afterwards, however, he had little chance of saving centre forward Jack Hutchings’ right-foot shot, which made it 3-1, effectively ending the game as a contest.

Minehead: Nathan Sheehan, Bertie Harvey-Larmar, Charlie Disney (Man of the Match), Louis Burge, George Painter, Will Singleton-Voss, Stefan Phillips, Josh Elston, Sam Jackson, Guy Burns, Ollie Hall.

Subs: Toby Waghorn, Jack Campbell-Farmer, Andy Hall (all used).

Minehead have their penultimate home match on Saturday, April 19 when Burnham United come to The Rec for a 3pm kick-off.