Shortwood United 2-0 Frome Town – FA Trophy Round One, Saturday 28th October.

Sport is a great leveller, it’s possible to go from hero to zero in the space of a few days, and that is exactly what happened to Frome, as, after their heroics in the win against Weymouth on Tuesday,  they slipped to a 2-0 defeat in the FA Trophy against Shortwood, in a match that Frome totally dominated from beginning to end, but were unable to find a goal and hardly a shot on target.

Manager Josh Jeffries was able to name exactly the same starting eleven as against Weymouth, the only difference in the squad being that Kris Miller was available to take his place on the substitute’s bench.

At a small scenic ground in the Cotswolds, with the noise from the nearby Forest Green Rovers match audible across the valley, the match kicked off on a lush pitch and quickly settled into a pattern that was to remain unchanged, with Shortwood happy for Frome to have possession in their own half, all the home players in their own half and relying on breakaways to hopefully snatch a goal or two.

Maybe it was all too comfortable for Frome, but they failed to play with any urgency from the start and the first quarter resulted in very little to report, and, just as you might expect, Shortwood then took the lead with their first attack in the 16th minute as Sam Taylor received the ball wide on the right in what looked like a suspiciously offside position, but no flag came and he did well to cut inside Chas Hemmings, make more ground and shoot past Kyle Phillips into the far corner.

Frome still failed to make anything happen, with lots of passes played in midfield leading to nothing in terms of cutting thrusts or chances, and Shortwood again went close on a breakaway in the 38th as a shot from Ashley Davies was deflected for a corner. But 4 minutes later, they upset the plan again as Phillips mis-kicked a clearance from a back pass straight to Jordan Morris who then advanced and hit a low left foot shot that looked to be going past the post until it hit the inside of Phillips’ diving arm and deflected into the net.

Presumably Frome had a half time talk that roasted a few ears, and they started the second half with more urgency and energy than at any time in the first, but the problem was could they find the early goal that would probably lead to a few more, or would frustration continue to build if the goal failed to come?

Unfortunately, the answer was the latter, and despite two chances falling to Jackson in the space of a minute right at the start, Jon Davies shooting way over in the 60th and Sam Teale landing a cross on the top of the cross bar, Frome were failing to create the gilt edged opportunities.

Darren Jefferies replaced Ben Withey in the  61st as Frome took off a defender and put on a forward, and Teale started operating and overlapping down the right, but the pattern continued, with Shortwood packing their penalty area with bodies and seeming to block every cross and shot, or clear every misplaced pass and Frome just could not get anything to trouble Will Pederick in the home goal.

Jefferies overhit a free kick from a dangerous position, Page flicked a header into the arms of Pederick, Jackson volleyed over from 15 yards, Joe Raynes almost hit the corner flag from the edge of box, Ryan Bath volleyed over after bringing the ball down well, Jefferies volleyed over from the edge of the area and so it went on.

Amazingly, the first real save Pederick had to make was in the 89th minute as he saved well from Davies, only for the ball to rebound to Jefferies who then hit the post from 6 yards and Davies volleyed the rebound way over the bar and frankly, that was the story of the match …. total domination of possession and territory, but a real shortage of composure in front of goal.   

There was no  H&B Tyres Man of the Match Award made today.