The Larks share the points with Yate Town coming from behind on two ocassions and providing a determined performance which was more beneficial to the Larks than the Bluebells.
After a slow start to the game Larkhall won a free kick which was cleared for a corner by the Yate Town defence and from the resulting corner the ball struck a post after a scramble in the visitor’s penalty area but from this point onwards it was an end to end game with the Larks containing the Yate threat.
Chris Lines’ created a chance for ex Lark Wayne Nderemani but his shot was blocked and in the 28th minute a right-wing cross from Calum English-Brown was met my Joe Guest whose clever touch saw the ball fly into the top corner of the net to put the Bluebells into the lead. On the stroke of half-time there seemed little danger from a ball hit forward as Ewan McMillan collected the ball but he under hit his back pass to Aaron Sainsbury and Larks forward Harvey Pritchard nipped in to slot the ball past goalkeeper Aarron Sainsbury, just inside his right-hand post.
The second half started with Larkhall’s Ethan Cannings shooting straight at Aaron Sainsbury and then Nick McCootie rattled the Larkhall crossbar with a fierce shot from 30 yards. After 57 minutes Chris Lines had a shot from 25 yards superbly tipped over the crossbar at full stretch by home goalkeeper Arthur Nasta and Nasta was called into action from the resulting corner bringing off another fine save. Ethan Cannings had a chance when he broke clear down the right but dragged his shot wide of the far post whilst at the other end both Calum English-Brown and Wayne Nderemani had shots blocked but on 70 minutes Calum English-Brown scored a great goal as he collected the ball about 40 yards from goal, turned a defender and shot into the top corner of the goal. Shortly after this, Ethan Mortimer-Taylor broke clear of the Yate Town defence and he cooly placed the ball past Aaron Sainsbury to equalise.
This was an excellent advert for Southern League Division One South football and fans will have left the ground having witnessed a goal to remember from Calum English-Brown. Larkhall have games in hand on the teams around them and remain in control of reaching a play off spot.
Larkhall Athletic: Nasta, Goodall, Dymond-Hall, Boulton, Bradley, Bowman, Lambert (Mortimer-Taylor 65), Pritchard, Williams, Cannings (Passco 90), Camm
Unused subs: Graham, Merritt, Lea
Bookings: Camm (20), Pritchard (29), Boulton (80)
Yate Town: Sainsbury, Taylor, Lewis, McMillan, Baker, Guest, Lines (Dempsey), Jenkins (Hillier), English-Brown, McCootie, Nderemani (Lewis)
Unused subs: Bell, Byrne
Bookings: Lines (33)
Yate Town Man of the Match: Calum English-Brown
Referee: Adam Gregory
Attendance: 234
Photos courtesy of Liz Bugg: Larks v Yate – 10-04-2024 – Google Photos