Wells continued a good run of form reaching their second semi-final this season, extending their unbeaten run to 10 games with a great team performance against a Peasedown side that had only lost 3 times this season.
Right from the first whistle Wells were in the descendancy, and on 3 minutes took the lead when a deep free kick from Joe Grant was parried by the Peasedown keeper and Olly Bryant was on hand to finish from close range. Wells continued to pile on pressure and on 8 minutes Fabio Ramos broke through but a Peasedown defender managed to clear for a corner. Ryan Morris took the resulting corner and floated a perfect ball that was met by the head of Steve Emery, who planted it in the top of the net. Peasedown never really got going and rarely troubled the Wells backline of Mark Phipps, Dan Barker, Martyn Sheppard and Joe Grant. On 25 minutes Wells got their third when Darren Maynard, who had terrorised the away defence all afternoon, went on a mazy run but was upended in the box. Dan Catley stepped up and coolly finished low to the keepers left to make it 3-0. Minutes later it could so easily been four when Maynard got to the by-line and crossed a perfect ball which Scott Hurley met and twisting hit it on the volley but it just cleared the cross bar.
The second half was a more even affair with Wells’ only notable clear cut chance coming on 55 minutes when a deep cross from Emery was hit first time by the advancing Bryant and the flashed across the face of goal with on-one following up. Ryan Morris continued to marshall the Wells midfield and Wells introduced 2 substitutes in quick succession mid-way through the half, Bryant was replaced by Jordan Bazley, Hurley was then replaced by Kieran White, playing his first game in four months following a lengthy injury. Then with 15 minutes left Barker was replaced by Ashley Crowther. With 10 minutes remaining Peasedown got a consolation goal, when slack marking in the Wells defence, resulted in a free kick being met by the Peasedown No9, who headed home from close range giving Phipps no chance. Wells saw out the remaining minutes to book their place in the Division 2 Cup Semi Final.
Man of the match – Darren Maynard
After the match Assistant Manager Julian Coppell said “That first half was arguably our best performance this season, at times we were untouchable. The confidence of the lads is really high at the moment and they can now look forward to another cup semi, although we as a management team have always maintained the cup is a distraction, the league is a priority, having said that at the moment it is a nice distraction”