Southern League Division One South and West

Taunton Town 2 Bridgwater Town 1

BRIDGWATER Town were left to rue a slow start as they slumped to a 2-1 derby defeat at Taunton Town on Saturday.

The Robins found themselves 2-0 down after just 18 minutes courtesy of goals from Steve Murray and Rodney Marsh, but bounced back to control large periods of the game.

They pulled one back on 88 minutes through Tom Knighton’s penalty, but were unable to find an equaliser.

On three minutes, Steve Murray reacted quickest to a loose ball to fire home from close range, after Bridgwater had failed to deal with a Ben Carter free-kick.

Marsh doubled the lead 15 minutes later, latching on to Ollie Chamberlain’s header before shooting low across John in the Bridgwater goal.

Craig Allen almost pulled a goal back four minutes before the half-time interval, only for Taunton keeper Irish to thwart him.

With two minutes to play, an off the ball incident involving Bushin and Josh Wadham saw the referee award Bridgwater a penalty – Knighton dispatched the spot-kick to give the Robins a sniff of a point, but they were unable to force another opening and left empty-handed.

Manager Richard Fey said his side were ‘the better team’ and were unlucky not to take at least a point from the game.

He said: “I can't fault the boys - we were the better team on Saturday and had more possession and the better chances.

“Their keeper was the busier of the two keepers over the 90 minutes, but two errors and we were punished and that's why they’re sat in the play offs and we aren't.

“They only had one or two young players in their side, where as we had seven or eight, so in the end the experience showed and they saw the game out.

“We been on a great run of late and the lads are playing well and if we can keep these young lads together the future looks good.”

Team: John, Grimshaw, Allward, Allan, Rudge, Byrne, Chamberlain, O’Hare, Knighton, McNab (Bushin 46), Tooze.