Wells go top with 7 to go

The waiting is over as with just seven league games remaining Wells City reached the summit of the First Division of the Western League for the first time this season by beating Oldland Abbotonians 3-0 at the Athletic Ground.

It was not a vintage performance by Wells City and at times they struggled to get any momentum into their game, but patience and a lot of grit eventually saw them grind down a hard working Oldland side that was forced to play with ten men for 75 minutes of the game.

The visitors were reduced to ten men in the 15th minute when a James Batchelor through ball was latched onto by Leon Britton only for the Wells striker to be brought down in the Oldlands penalty area by goalkeeper Josh Dempsey.

Referee James Welch who was well positioned to see the incident had little alternative than to show a straight red card to Dempsey.

The early opportunity for Wells to take the lead was wasted as Jake Brown's spot kick was pushed to safety by midfielder Scott Robson who was forced to take over in the visitors goal.

Wells City then made an early substitution following the bookings of the central defensive pairing of Sam Gerrish and Jamie Price with manager Mark Read sacrificing Gerrish and bringing on Dan Spill.

The game was fairly open with the visitors going close with efforts from Jack Parker, Dale Stone and Ryan Dunn.

Wells at times were being forced to defend in numbers against the ten men, but they did get the breakthrough on 42 minutes when a Lee Pitman free kick got a deflection onto the Oldland crossbar and from the rebound Nathan Truckle stabbed the ball home from close range.

Wells City should have doubled their advantage on 53 minutes when a lofted Lee Pitman pass in behind two Oldland defenders saw Truckle somehow fail to score from six yards out.

The home side again went close when Tom Smith picked out a rampaging Ollie Bryant through the left channel, but the full back saw his effort drift inches wide of the far post.

The home side began to get on top in the final quarter of the game and they were to double their lead on 75 minutes with a terrific right foot shot from Lee Pitman 23 yards from goal which flew into the top corner of the net, it was the striker's 27th goal of the campaign

Wells City added a third on 88 minutes when Leon Britton turned sharply inside the box before sending a left foot shot into the bottom corner of the net.

Wells City's Assistant manager John Allen said: "We are top of the table now, but we have to keep our feet on the ground. We have the points, now the rest of the teams are all playing catch up, but at the same time we also know that we are in good form.

"We are not going to get carried away and we have to play each game as it comes and we also have to realise that we may still have bumps on the way.

"We have to stay mentally prepared for everything with seven games still to play, but we are scoring a lot of goals at present which is a bonus and the bigger bonus has to be we have now kept three clean sheets in a row, which at this stage of the season is brilliant."

Merv's merit marks: W Justin 7, S Saunders 7, O Bryant 8, S Gerrish 6, J Price 7, T SMITH 8, N Truckle 7, J Batchelor 7, L Britton 7, L Pitman 7, J Brown 6, Sub: D Spill 7

Referee: James Welch 6

Entertainment value: 7