Ledbury Town Football Club

Match report

Following three consecutive Herefordshire FA County League Division One wins, with respective 2-1 and 3-0 victories over bottom table sides the Civil Service and Bartestree at New Street and an entertaining 3-1 win against tenth place holders Hinton Reserves at Broomy Hill last weekend, Ledbury Town Reserves faltered for the first time in over a month this week, losing out 1-0 at The Copse to mid-table Burghill Rangers.

The fortunes of David Butcher’s squad against Burghill had already been mixed this season, with a 1-1 draw resulting during the very first game of the season back in early September at New Street as Alistair Holder found the sole Ledbury goal with Liam Watton on target for the Rangers.

An 8-5 goal fest to Burghill’s advantage then occurred in the quarter-finals of the Ross Cup competition in early December at their venue, as star reserves player Bramley notched up a first hat-trick at senior level football to go with goals from Skittery and Matti Holder, with Watton scoring a treble and Louis Mann picking up a brace for the Rangers as Jed Mann and substitute players John Brandie and Harry Bosse also found the net for the hosts.

The goals were far less free-flowing on this occasion however, with the Ledbury second string not quite managing to get on the scoresheet even if Alex Berry was named man of the match for the reserves for a solid defensive performance throughout to keep the Burghill scoreline at bay.

Given their recent promising run of form, Butcher was disappointed with his side’s latest showing:

“It was not a great performance all round to be honest, with individual mistakes costing us. We were slow out of the blocks, and we were duly punished for it.”

“We were poor overall, but perhaps a draw would have been a fair result.”

The New Street second string, still a comfortable seventh place in the table four points above Burghill, must quickly put this result behind them as this coming Wednesday evening sees them host current second place holders Worcester United (KO 7:30pm), before entertaining fifth-placed Tenbury United just three days later (KO 2:30pm).

A 3-3 draw occurred away at Martley Village Hall for the reserves when they last played Worcester in early October, as a brace from Skittery and a goal from Jack Dandy levelled the goals scored by United strikers Matthew Gardner, Rhys Turberfield and Arron Windsor.

The same scoreline resulted against Tenbury at Palmers Meadow in the penultimate game before the Christmas break for Butcher’s squad, with Skittery and sixteen-year-old Jake Clueit scoring either side of an own goal from the hosts, with Ryan Morris picking up a brace for United and Michael Wood also on target for the blue and yellow shirts, even if team-mates Will Clutterbuck and Aaron Morris were booked by referee J. Cairns.

The Ledbury second string will end March with a first visit of the season to the Brimfield and Little Hereford Sports Club to face current eighth place holders Tenbury Town, whom they are yet to lock horns with this season after their scheduled first meeting of the season at New Street was postponed three weeks ago due to a waterlogged pitch caused by Storm Eunice.