Defeat to Manor Farm

Wells City travelled to Bristol Manor Farm on Saturday with a below par side as Matt Hurley and Ben Robertson were once again on county duty, Kyle Mcerlain was serving the second of his two match ban and Steve Sokol was unavailable.
Acting manager James Dash was forced to bring in the youngsters and they all contributed to a fairly decent display.
It would be so easy to be overawed by a more physical and experienced side, but overall this was a very good performance on a rock hard pitch with variable bounce.
The early exchanges were fairly evenly balanced and playing good football at ground level was always likely to prove difficult.
The first real attack of the game brought the opening goal and it came from Bristol Manor Farm.
The Wells defence failed to cope with a long clearance out of the Bristol Manor Farm penalty area and it was Ben Crewe who picked up on the loose ball to slot the ball wide of Ben Dancey.
Wells to their credit didn’t buckle and they fought back in courageous style and in terms of possession deserved to be on level terms at the interval.
The nearest Wells came to scoring, was on the stroke of half time, when a wonderful deep cross from Jake Brown, found the head of Mark Randall, but he could only direct his effort straight into the hands of goalkeeper Lee Ballard.
The second half was once again fairly evenly balanced, with the home side in the main, being restricted to shooting from distance, with Jamie Gowers once again rock solid at the heart of the Wells backline.
Bristol Manor Farm eventually doubled their advantage on 76 minutes and the goal as expected came from outside the penalty area as Brad Abraham unleashed a superb strike from 23 yards that flew wide of Dancey, giving the keeper no chance.
The Wells youngsters to their credit once again failed to buckle or throw the towel in and they got the goal they thoroughly deserved with a well taken goal on 82 minutes.
A brilliant Toby Cole through ball was latched onto by Jamie Howson and the striker remained composed to slot the ball wide of the advancing Ballard.
Wells with their tails up went in search of an equaliser, but at the same time the home side looked to regain their two goal advantage as half chances were created at both ends, but despite a final flourish from both sides, the score line remained the same, with Bristol Manor Farm running out 2-1 victors.
The score line just about reflected the performance of both sides and for Wells, with depth in their squad, a bright future looks assured.