ON a cold but sunny day, Frome put in a truly professional performance, dominating from start to finish showing off the depth and talent in the squad.
After a reverse fixture to forget back in January, the Robins looked to set things right and create a gap between Wimborne and Cribbs who faced each other.
The Lambs would have been well up for the game, having won four of their last five games. They came into the game on good form and would have been looking to keep up their push towards the play-offs.
From the off, Frome controlled the game and created all the chances, they came thick and fast and in the first ten minutes, Kane Simpson, Zak Drew and James Ollis all came close to opening the scoring.
Man of the Match Jon Davies, on a day that saw him awarded with a trophy to mark 250 appearances for the club, came close minutes later when a cross that was flicked on by Drew found him, but unfortunately his attempted overhead kick was sliced wide.
Davies was again the centre of all the action when Tavistock found themselves breaking on the half-way line with a two against one counterattack, but Davies appeared out of nowhere to perform a perfectly timed sliding tackle stopping their advance.
More chances came through Simpson, Drew and Ollis, all beating players and finding space to have shots, but the opening goal just wasn’t coming. Simpson won the ball back on the edge of the Tavistock area, finding himself denied by keeper Aaron Dearing who made a brilliant double save putting the ball out for a corner kick.
This is where Frome got themselves into a deserved lead 32 minutes in. The resulting set-piece was delivered into a dangerous area, pinballed around, cleared off of the line, before being smashed home by Pierce Mitchell.
Several more chances came and went before and after halftime with no avail, but also no reply from Tavistock; their ‘keeper making some excellent saves to keep the score at only 1-0.
Tavistock started to look like they were getting themselves together, with play starting to edge towards Kyle Phillips’ goal, but the two-goal cushion came in the 64th minute, when Drew found himself with the ball out wide, spinning past two players before playing the ball across goal for Simpson to finish coolly.
Sam Meakes then entered the fray and had an immediate impact 82 minutes in, getting on the end of a loose ball, holding off the defenders and slotting calmly past the ‘keeper, showing the coolness and composure we’ve seen from him time and time again.
It was 85 minutes before Tavistock had a shot on target when substitute Daniel Koita found himself face-to-face with Phillips, slotting past him into the bottom corner.
The effort, determination and patience of Frome, drilled into them by Danny Greaves and his staff, was non-more obvious than in today’s performance, leaving the Dodge top of the league as we round the corner to the home straight of the season.
Match report by Ben Hollis.
