Devon Football League
Beer Albion 1st’s lost ground on league pace-setters Exeter University and Appledore when they went down 1-0 away at Newtown on Saturday afternoon. The pitch was extremely heavy after recent heavy rain and suited the home side’s long ball approach. Nevertheless it was a game that Beer dominated for long spells but they could not break down a dogged, determined Newtown defence.
The game was very even early on as both teams tried to come to terms with the conditions, Beer soon became more forceful going forward and created a couple half chances which came to nothing.
But the home side proved tough to break down and were quite willing to stop the Fishermen by fair means or foul. To the frustration of the Beer players and the bench, much of Newtown’s cynical play went unpunished by the refereee.
Newtown went ahead against the run of play on the stroke of half-time. A long misdirected cross swung high over the Beer defence and dropped into the far top corner. This was tough on the Fishermen who had defended impressively on the heavy pitch and played well in midfield.
The game followed the same pattern after the break. Beer dominated possession created a lot of half chances but the final finish eluded them.
Newtown continued to break up Beer’s momentum by fair means or foul, and frustrated Manager Mark Rooke was red-carded after a blatant foul in front of the dug-out again went unpunished.
Finley Rooke had a couple of good chances with headers but missed the target on both occasions. Then with 5 minutes to go, Taylor Rooke appeared to have scored a perfectly good equaliser. But the home linesman flagged belatedly for offside and the goal was disallowed even though the Beer midfielder had gone past two Newtown defenders.
Despite the defeat, Beer played some fine football and worked incredibly hard. across the park. Man-of-the-match was Matthew Berry who defended superbly and was a constant threat going forward.
On this performance and with a little more good fortune Beer can look forward with a very positive mindset to next week’s tough encounter away at Appledore.
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