Ilminster Town away in action (From This is The West Country)

Ilminster Town away in action

2:00pm Friday 17th August 2012 in Sport

ILMINSTER Town boss Darren Manley will be hoping his side can make it two wins on the bounce when he takes the Blues to Cutters Friday tomorrow (Saturday) in the Premier Division of the Errea Somerset County League.

Manley could not have wished for a better start to life in the Premier Division last weekened with a 3-1 opening day success at St George Easton in Gordano.

Manley had gone into the first game of the 2012-13 campaign having admitted that his newly-promoted team had had a far from satisfactory pre-season.

But it is often the way that teams who have a disappointing build-up to the season start well, while those who look good in friendly fixtures begin the “proper business” poorly.

And so Manley was delighted with his team’s 3-1 opening day victory at St George Easton in Gordano at the weekend — even more so as they had arrived late for the game due to traffic congestion.

St George controlled the opening stages of the match, but Ilminster went close through Jamie Green and Alex Paul.

But the sides went in 0-0 at the interval.

Ilminster broke the deadlock ten minutes into the second period when Alex Paul scored with a good finish, but the home side levelled on the hour mark.

But Manley said: “I was pleased to see that we didn’t panic when they got the equaliser.”

Ilminster restored their lead soon afterwards when Paul converted a penalty after Mike McCormack had been felled inside the box and then Adam Manley made sure of the points with the Blues’ third goal of the afternoon.

The Ilminster manager said: “It was a good start and I thought we defended really well.”

Ilminster are away again tomorrow when they travel to Cutters Friday who themselves got the season off to a winning start with a 2-1 success over Bridgwater Town Reserves.

Manley said: “This will be a proper test because I reckon Cutters Friday will be challenging for a top six position come the end of the season.”