Somerset County Premier

Berrow 4 Clutton 0

BERROW showed no mercy in this basement battle between two sides level on points.

Victory was important for Berrow and they raced into the lead inside a minute when Jamie Howson found himself in the box, beat his man and finished superbly into the bottom corner.

This hit Clutton for six - no sooner than 10 minutes on the clock Howson was at it again, cleverly beating his man again before sending a rasping effort into the net via the underside of the crossbar.

Berrow were in no mood to let the visitors back in, and on 20 minutes when Cleave burst into the box from the left he was hauled down for a penalty.

Skipper Luke McErlain duly obliged, hitting the penalty under the dive of the despairing goalkeeper for 3-0.

Clutton did show some fight and hit the post with what was really their only dangerous attack, as Berrow went into the interval 3-0 up.

Keirle and Osgood drummed it into the players at half time not to get complacent - and it worked as 10 minutes into the second half, Cleave again broke into the box and was swiped out as Berrow were awarded yet another penalty.

Cleave dusted himself off this time and took the penalty himself and made no mistake to make it 4-0.

Berrow were cruising now and made all three subs - West replacing Gates, Penfold on for McErlain and debutant Leaf on for Cleave.

Berrow saw the game out and were deserved 4-0 winners.

Manager Dave Keirle said: "This is the kind of performance we are capable of, credit where it's due, we were 100 times better than last week.

"We have Dundry next at home (Feb 13) who we can leapfrog if we win.

"We need to take each game at a time and take the right attitude from the start.

"We could've given man of the match to anyone today, but Luke McErlain our captain gets it, he was superb, a leader of men with his work rate.

"Some of the stuff he does on the pitch can go un noticed, but his experience is vital with the young lads he has playing around him.

"The average age of our side today was around 22 or 23, so the future is looking bright."