Clinical second half sees Town extend winning run in front of bumper crowd

FROME Town continued their fantastic form with victory over play-off chasing Yate Town. 

Second half strikes from James Ollis and Kane Simpson were enough to give the BA11 side another huge three points, helping them keep pace with Wimborne at the top of the league.

Danny Greaves unsurprisingly named an unchanged side, to the one that did the job over Bideford recently and once again, from top to bottom, the team put in a fantastic shift from start to finish.

It wasn’t just a good performance on the pitch, but also in the stands. With 571 fans attending, the noise created by the BA11 faithful helped push the players on during the game.

Frome were dominant early on, and the first chance just went astray from Simpson in the eighth minute after good work from Jon Davies to win the ball off of the Yate Town defender. He fizzed a low cross in, but it was just out of Simpson’s reach. 

A similar chance came 12 minutes later, this time from the other side as Zak Drew made space in the box before drilling a low cross towards Ollis who diverted his effort towards goal but not beyond Sainsbury in goal.

The home side then thought they had the lead 30 minutes in when Ollis was played through before slotting past the keeper. Celebrations were unfortunately cut short when the linesman raised her flag for offside.

The Somerset side continued to dominate for the remainder of the half. Davies had a free-kick tipped over in the 35th minute and Simpson had a shot blocked three minutes later, bringing a close to a positive, but frustrating half of football.

The Bluebells did come out the second half in a more positive manner, but Frome’s defence and midfield stood firm, denying them any clear cut chances. The deadlock was then broken 68 minutes in when Ollis ran onto a through ball, firing low past the keeper and scoring his 50th goal for the club in the process.

Frome looked comfortable in and out of possession but a second goal was still wanted and that’s exactly what came seven minutes before the end of the game.

Meakes, who came on in the 79th minute and made a real impact as he always does by causing havoc in the box, saw a shot blocked before it fell to Simpson who found a yard of space, before firing past the keeper. This was strangely enough also his 50th goal for the club. I’m sure Ollis will be happy to reach the mark 15 minutes quicker than him though.

Frome then managed the remainder of the game superbly. The away side gave it a go, but didn’t trouble Kyle Philips’ goal too much before the referee bought proceedings to a close.

Match report by Harrison Richards.