Somerset 0 Gloucestershire 2 [played at Paulton Rovers FC]
Only four minutes of this match had gone when Gloucestershire took the lead and eased any nerves that they might have had. Somerset failed to deal with a high ball, two of their players went up to head the same ball and all they succeeded in doing was knocking it on for Ryan Batten [JSSi] to head home from 5 metres.
Within a minute Gloucestershire escaped by conceding a corner when a powerful Somerset shot struck Dan Stone [JSSi] and went out for a corner. However, the corner was cleared.
Both sides struggled to play cohesive football on a bone hard pitch that had some uneven areas. As a result, there were few goal mouth incidents as attack after attack from both side petered out 30 metres from goal. There were also several fouls as players misjudged the bounce of the ball.
Mid way through the half, Gloucestershire twice headed over the bar from corners, whilst the Gloucestershire keeper fisted away a dangerous cross from Somerset. Nevertheless late in the half Elliott Saunders [Bitton] did force a good save from the Somerset keeper.
Early in the second half, Jack Parker [JSSi] shot wide, and the Gloucestershire keeper dived bravely at the feet of the Somerset attack and prevented an equaliser. Gloucestershire created another chance mid way through the second half when Ryan Batten rose to head the ball only to see it go wide.
In the 70th minute, Gloucestershire went 2-0 up following a Jordan Mall [JSSi] free kick on the left. As the ball reached the goal area, Josh Bruton [Keynsham Town] rose above all the other players to head the ball home, with the Somerset keeper unable to stop the ball going into the corner of the net.
Ryan Batten was unlucky with another header, whilst a corner was headed by Gloucestershire onto the crossbar. The game ended with Somerset nearly scoring as a ricochet in the penalty area nearly went into Gloucestershire net, before being cleared.
At the end of the match, Alex Grimshaw [Bitton], the Gloucestershire captain, received the South West Counties Under 16 Cup on the pitch from Somerset’s Secretary Mr Lester Clements.
The League table is :–
Gloucestershire 6 5 0 1 12 5 15 (Champions)
Oxfordshire 6 4 0 2 14 10 12
Berks & Bucks 5 3 0 2 10 8 9
Wiltshire 6 3 0 3 9 11 9
Hampshire 5 2 1 2 9 10 7
Somerset 6 1 1 4 7 12 4
Dorset 6 1 0 5 6 11 3