Somerset County Division Two West

Highbridge Town 2, Cheddar Reserves 2

HIGHBRIDGE Town manager Matt Pitt was “bitterly disappointed” not to take all three points from Saturday's 2-2 draw with Cheddar Reserves.

Goals from Simon Foreacres and Matt Scott fired Town into a 2-0 lead, before Foreacres was shown a straight red card for retaliation in an off the ball incident.

Ten-man Town battled on, but Cheddar fought their way back into the game and earned a point with two second-half goals.

Pitt was angry at the referee's decision not to send off a Cheddar player for the incident that saw Foreacres dismissed and felt the red card was played a huge part in the result.

He said: “I am bitterly disappointed not to get three points from the game, the boys gave me all they had and they should all hold their heads up as they were magnificent.

“I feel if a different referee had been in charge we would have had the three points as both players would have walked and they would never have had the man advantage at any point.

“We were well in control of the game at 2-0 up and feel we would have gone on to get another goal at least.

“It just feels the decisions are not going our way just yet and hopefully they will even themselves out across the season.”

Town started very well and took a deserved lead in the first half with the excellent Chris Taylor whipping in a great cross, which after a good save from the 'keeper, fell to Simon Foreacres who smashed the ball home.

Town had many chances to increase their lead against the shocked Cheddar side with Scott putting the ball over from close range when really he should have scored.

They doubled their lead after 40 minutes with Matt Scott turning the ball home after some great build up play and football from the midfield.

Highbridge were well in control of the game with Will Bailey shining in the Town midfield, but the turning point was a straight red card shown by the referee to Simon Foreacres for retaliation.

This gave Cheddar a man advantage for a good 25 minutes - and they made the most of it scoring with 15 minutes left to play.

Approaching the final 10 minutes the hard working Scott latched on to a through ball to round the keeper and slot the ball to what we thought was going to be home and a 3-1 lead to Highbridge, but as the ball was rolling approaching the line the ball stopped dead on the line due to the mud in the goal mouth, Scott had already turned away celebrating as did most of Town players but the game continued and with minutes remaining Cheddar struck again to break Town's hearts and steal a point.

Team: S Bailey, Redstone, Holley, Marshfield, Green, Elliott, Hirons, Foreacres, W Bailey, Taylor & Scott. Subs Green, Mockridge & Fisher