The Larks got past Western League Street on a rain-lashed evening to book a place in the second round of the Somerset Premier Cup, although they first had to overcome a 1-0 deficit from the opening seconds of the game as well as face penalties.
Street’s Kam Andrews breezed through a Larks defence which looked to be mentally still in the dressing room to give the visitors the lead less than two minutes after kick off. In an open game on an increasingly heavy pitch the Larks huffed and puffed but put relatively few proper chances together in the first half.
A change of tactics in the second made all the difference. Cory Simpson – captain for the evening in Mike Baker’s absence – was liberated to fly forward and cause the Street defence all sorts of problems, whilst Jack Camm kept the midfield busy and young Charlie Wiles-Richards buzzed around looking for an opening. It was Charlie who cued up our only goal in open play with a fine ball back into the box after Street failed to clear following a corner. Defender Dan Restorick stooped and scored with a characteristic low header to make it 1-1 with some 30 minutes to play.
The game then really opened up and the Larks started to exert some pressure, Cory, Alex Lambert and Charlie all having good opportunities to score a winner but somehow the goal never came, and the game ended up going to penalties. Even though one of ours was saved, Street missed the target and Shaun Semmens also saved one of their efforts, so we are in the hat for the next round.