CHARD Town produced a much-improved display on Wednesday to beat Wells City 3-0 in the first round of the Somerset Premier Cup, writes Rod Harrington.

Manager Adam Fricker, in tinkering with the side that lost to Warminster, included Elliott Dyer, Louis Gillman, and Braeden Symes in the starting line-up with Jason Hutchings back in goal replacing Stuart Parris.

It did not take long for the Robins to gain the advantage. Playing down the slope Gillman forced his way through to slip the ball past the advancing keeper to score an excellent goal after just two minutes.

Chard were now operating as a cohesive force with some incisive attacking football. Young Braeden Symes was playing intelligently up front with Scott Holland and on two occasions came close. Nevertheless Hutchings was called upon to execute a terrific save from a Wells free kick to prevent an equaliser.

It was the visitors who began to dominate at the start of the second half and Dan Williams was unlucky when he hit a post early on. However, after a period of end to end football the game changed dramatically midway through the second half.

A long ball from Oscar Latas out on the wing was met calmly by Symes who quided his header out of reach of the flailing Wells keeper on 69 minutes. Merely a minute later the score was 3-0. An excellent run by Andy Martin led to him unleashing a fine strike which went in off the post. It took the stuffing out of the Wells team with Chard ultimately coasting to victory.

Chard: Jason Hutchings, Elliott Dyer, Ben Haines (Callum Mooney 74 mins), Nathan Warren (Ben Mear 72 mins), Leigh Bailey, Jamie Underwood, Louis Gillman, Andy Martin, Scott Holland, Braeden Symes (Jamie Barfoot 76 mins), Oscar Latas. Sub not used: Adam Fricker.