Pledger poaches a pair

This was going to be a much anticipated game as the season panned out, and it turned out to be a promotion decider. Evercreech travelled to the Athletic Ground knowing only a draw would see them promoted after defeating league leaders Frome Town Sports on the previous Saturday. Conversely, Wells knew that only a win would see them promoted.

In front of a large crowd and playing on the large Wells City pitch, Wells came out of the blocks a lot quicker and settled the better of the 2 teams. Ryan Pledger and Olly Edwards created half chances with their early energy but with no clear cut shots at goal. Midfield trio of Steve Griffin, Scot Hurley and Max Corefield-Moore bossed the centre of the park for long periods, playing some great triangles straight off the training ground, but still with no end product. Pledger's over-eagerness got him booked for what the referee deemed to be a late challenge on the Creech keeper. Wells were not always in full control and had a couple of nervy moments at the back with Liam Williams hesitant with his decisions to come for balls, but the defensive three of Arron Wickham, Pete Vowles and captain Martyn Sheppard mopped up any loose balls and dealt with the limited forward surges. Wells finally broke the deadlock on 32 minutes when Pledger slotted home when this time the referee deemed his challenge on the keeper legal. This settled the nerves and 6 minutes later Pledger made it 2-0 when the defence and now hesitant keeper left a ball which he got to first and lobbed into the back of the net. The half finished 2-0 and Wells were in the driving seat and well worthy of their lead

The second half was much the same, with Tom Tibbs and Callum Carter getting more into the game down the flanks. Wells could have made it 3 when a goalmouth melee saw 4 goal bound shots blocked on the line. The clubs' leading goal scorer Mike Barnett was introduced to the fray on 55 minutes in place of Pledger and Wells continued to play some good football but were unable to get the killer third. Evercreech constantly changed their formation to try to get back into the game and began to throw men forward in search of a goal but still didn’t really trouble the Wells backline. Wells made two further changes, bringing on Ashley Birch for Corefield-Moore and Pat Berwick on for Tom Tibbs to run the clock down.

The tense final moments ended when the ref blew the final whistle and signalled celebrations for the home team and supporters. After 4 years of finishing third in trying to gain promotion to the Premier Division of the Mid Somerset League it had finally happened.

A big thanks to our sponsors “Shipshape”, supporters and club committee.

When asked to comment on his teams success, Manager Maynard thanked both Mark Phipps and David Green and the majority of the players then went on to explain "Batting first, we dominated their bowling attack, seeing off the initial new ball and taking the game away from them during the batting power play with 2 big boundary blows from Pledger. After the turnaround, we managed to gain adequate reverse swing to keep their openers on the back foot and our spinners dramatically reduced their scoring rate so the death bowlers in the last overs saw the game out with ease"