Somerset Premier Division: Ilminster Town 1-1 Worle

A MUCH better second half performance that brought an equalising goal from Lewis Trusson to gave Ilminster a deserved point in a very competitive match between two well matched teams, writes Andrew Fish.

In hot sweltering conditions that were more like the middle of summer rather than September the Ilminster defence switched off as Worle took the lead in the opening three minutes with what can only be described as a sloppy goal to concede.

Worle who beat Ilminster on the opening day of the season were the better team in the first twenty minutes, both sides never creating any more chances in this opening period.

The Blues kick started into life on the half hour mark, Lee Sweet surged forward from the back picking out Taylor Jefferson who linked well with Kieran Manley who squared it back to Sweet with the shot from the edge of the area taking a deflection.

From the corner Manley made a positive run to the near post and got up well to flash his header just wide.

Worle then had a great chance to go two up when they had an overlap on the Ilminster left, the cross came in and from close range Jack Rutter made a fine save.

Two minutes after the restart Trusson picked up the ball out wide before cutting in and with the outside of his foot found the bottom corner with a clever finish to make it 1-1.

In the searing heat both sides were fully committed going at each other, without any real goalmouth action.

Evan Howse, Drew Stride and George Hayward came on to add extra energy and with ten minutes left Lee and Hayward both had efforts from the edge of the area.

There was a flashpoint when a Worle player picked up the ball before it had gone out of play, the Worle manager entered the field to deliver a head butt to a Ilminster player that deservedly got him a red card and he left the ground.

There is certainly no room for this sort of behaviour in any standard of football, a long ban will certainly follow.

The Worle captain apologised for the Manager’s actions to the Ilminster bench and play resumed.

A couple of corners from Worle in added time were well defended by Tom Case as he headed clear and when the referee blew the whistle both sides were happy to have shared the points.

A full committed good quality match with both sides looking to win, some good performances throughout the team with star man going to Lewis Trusson.

It’s cup action next week with the Somerset County Premier/Division One League Cup first round tie against Clevdon United, the match kicks off at the Archie Gooch Pavilion at 3.00pm.