Travis Perkins Supreme Division
Bottesford Town 2 Teversal FC 2
Saturday, 01 December 2001
REPORT PREPARED BY KEV NEWTON (T.F.C.)
BOTTESFORD TOWN - Dougal, Rylatt, Snowden, Stead, Horwood, Alderson, Horsfield J., Beesley, Pearce (Shenton 60), Shirlock (Beck 81), Horsfield A. Subs Not Used - Thompson.
TEVERSAL - Parker, Whetton, Shipley, Clarke (Curzon 55), Baines, Flint, Cockerill, Hudson, Gomm, Bramley, Fletcher. Subs Not Used - Wilkinson & Cook.
REFEREE - Mr S. Chatwin of Scunthorpe.
MAN OF MATCH - Bottesford Town - Darren Beesley, Teversal - Jonathan Shipley.
A true test of character came Teversal's way in this game at struggling Bottesford Town on Saturday. They travelled to the North Lincolnshire club without the suspended Iain Roe with Paul Clarke moving in to the back line in a otherwise unchanged side from the one that battled to beat South Normanton the previous weekend.
The game started off has a cautious affair with both sides attempting to play football on the heavy Birch Park ground, but this lead to both sides making a number of unforced arrears to give their opponents the ball back. Add that to the stop start situations caused by the Official this didn't make for a great spectacle at all.
We had to wait until the 18th minute to see the first real opening and that came from a Teversal corner. But ironically it was Bottesford who hit Teversal on the break and when Pearce was given a clear run at the Teversal goal, Parker stayed tall in the Teversal goal and forced the striker wide with the Bottesford man failing to hit the target. Two minutes later the Tevie boys hit back when Cockerill's mazzy run was only halted when Alderson made a last ditch challenge to put the ball out for a corner.
The game was swinging from end to end, with it being the home side who produced the next bit of goal month action on 38 minutes. Snowden's free kick was only cleared to the edge of the box with John Horswood firing in an excellent effort which came back off the bar before being scrambled to safety.
On 42 minutes the game went into high drama, the referee awarded a free kick to Bottesford deep in their own half, when Snowden was allowed to take it whilst the ball was moving and 10 yards away from where the foul was committed. Rylatt received the ball out on the Teversal left cut in and rolled the ball back for Stead to fire home. Obviously the Teversal's boys weren't happy with this and Jonathan Flint was shown two yellow cards and consequently a red to everyone's amazement.
Whatever Teversal had in their half time tea certainly did the trick, they came out and showed true grit and determination to take charge of the second half. The neat football, the will to win and the character shown in these testing conditions was a credit to the young Teversal side and it was just reward when Colin Cockerill produced a Beckham style free kick to pull the scores back level.
Cockerill had two further excellent efforts, the first going just inches wide and the second beat Dougal in the Bottesford goal all ends up, but the crossbar saved the Keeper and Bottesford. The next twist to go against Teversal was on 55 minutes, when Paul Clarke came off with a reoccurrence of his hamstring injury, which could see the lad out for another two to three weeks.
Bottesford had a 10-minute spell, which saw them again take the lead against the run of play. Beesley firing home after a Shirlocks effort came back off the post on 63 minutes. But Teversal again came back at their host and on 70 minutes an excellent move by Bramley and Fletcher found Cockerill in the Bottesford box, but Dougal produced a quality save down to his right to keep the lead in tack.
The Tevie boys were not going down easily and throw everything at Bottesford, which made for an excellent last 20 minutes, with Bottesford stretching the Teversal back line due to them being a man light, but Baines, Whetton, Shipley and Curzon battled away to keep the home side at bay.
With time ticking away, Teversal finally got their reward when Jon Shipley's excellent run and cross was given the finish it deserved by Jamie Hudson who produced a text box volley from 8 yards that Dougal never saw. An equaliser the Teversal boys more than earned and really a result that flatted the home side.
This Saturday Teversal again travel into Lincolnshire to face Nettleham, leaving the Triple S at Skegby at 12.15pm
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