Ledbury Town Football Club

Match report

Brace-scorer for Ledbury against Wellington Tom Boyle races towards the box with the ball against an opposing defender and his captain after receiving a superb through-ball from team-mate George Walker, shortly before being flagged offside by the home linesman (📸: Chris Ponter)

An improved second half performance maintained Ledbury Town’s second place position in the Herefordshire FA County League Premier Division this week, scoring a 5-2 victory over at Wellington Rangers in a continuing tour of the county which again witnessed freezing winds nearly on a par with the bitter gales which battered Shobdon Airfield last weekend, when Ian Merrick’s men achieved an 11-2 demolition over the league’s basement boys in the Herefordshire FA Charity Bowl quarter-finals.

There was a degree of doubt at first over whether this latest league fixture would be played at all when no referee was present at the scheduled kick-off time of 3:30pm, retained despite the earlier Herefordshire League Division Two fixture between Wellington Colts and Ross Juniors Reserves being postponed, but fortunately, referee Mike Darley arrived soon afterwards to allow the game to go ahead under the added advantage of the floodlights on Wellington’s main pitch.

Ledbury made hard work of the opening period, so much so that a repeat of the 6-1 demolition achieved by the New Street outfit at home against the same side during the fifth league game of the season back in early September, when six different goalscorers were on target for Town with Tom Boyle, Ben Febery, Tom Trigg, Scott Roberts, Nathan Ince and Josh Burns all finding the net, seemed highly unlikely during the second meeting of the season against the Rangers.

In fact the first thirty minutes or so were little more than mediocre on the part of the black and white shirts as the hosts gained the majority of chances, culminating in Jordan Russell finding a first goal before a well-taken free kick from Febery allowed George Walker to pull one back six minutes from the interval.

The half-time team talk from Merrick appeared to have worked wonders however as his squad emerged on to the field in a much more assured manner for the second half of play, with Ince putting his side ahead for the first time that afternoon barely four minutes from the break, only for Matthew Maturi to restore the stalemate less than ten minutes later through a successful penalty awarded under controversial circumstances when visiting captain Matt Rooke was judged to have handled the ball following a throw-in from the opposition.

With Febery, Rooke and Merrick all having been spoken to by Darley owing to the contentious feelings which had crept into the middle point of the encounter, this setback only served to galvanize Ledbury into action, with Town man of the match Boyle picking up a brace within four minutes of play to add to his double scored over at Ewyas Harold a fortnight previously, before Burns went on to hit the visitors’ fifth for a decisive victory.

Ledbury started quite promisingly after the Wellington keeper was forced to pull off a great save to deny a threatening fifth minute effort from Ince as the pacy striker raced away downfield on the break, before Asten Griffiths nodded clear an opening Rangers corner ball at the other end of the field.

The hosts stepped up their attack however as Trigg denied one of their forwards on the touchline, with Loader catching a cross-shot at the near post, before a handball offence from Dale Taylor in midfield saw the swiftly-taken short free kick from the team in tangerine lead to the ball being given back to Loader, after contact was judged to have been made to Taylor’s back on the far wing by an opposing forward.

Wellington were forced to make an earlier-than-expected first substitution at twenty minutes in when one of their defenders suffered a match-ending lower leg injury following a challenge from Febery right in front of their dugout, with nervy times continuing for Town when Loader blocked a direct shot on the ground, even if the visiting goaltender, playing only his third game for Ledbury’s senior outfit this season, fumbled the ball briefly and only just managed to recover it in time before a Rangers striker could race in and finish the job.

Following a Taylor free kick in midfield after Darley ordered that the new Town signing this season bring the ball back slightly, Russell broke the deadlock with a goal which, in all fairness, had been coming with around three-quarters of play having so far taken place exclusively in the visitors’ half of the field.

Loader then made a risky if well-judged call in rushing well off his line in order to clear the ball away from an opposing attacker running down the far wing, with the home player taking a tumble in the process as Wellington continued to threaten by sending an effort from towards the touchline just shy of the near corner of the frame.

The strong chilly cross-winds then aided a Loader goal kick on its way in being erroneously knocked into the Rangers dugout, before Boyle was flagged offside by the home linesman after receiving a good through-ball from Walker just after the half-hour mark of play.

Trigg nodded a further cross-shot from the opposition up and away from the front of goal as Griffiths was on hand to block a follow-up effort, with Ledbury continuing to defend well when Taylor performed a great clearance over the near sideline, striking the ball away from a Wellington forward after the Rangers player received a superb long-ball from midfield.

Contact was made again by a member of the home squad in the back of a Town player, on this occasion Febery as the ensuing free kick from the plucky visiting youngster met Alistair Holder in the box, before going on to find Walker on the left who wasted no time in slotting the ball home to finally get his side off the mark.

A final corner ball of the first period of play from the orange shirts was then received by Taylor at the near post, as Holder completed the defensive move in playing the ball out of the area and firing it away over the sideline.

Darley then refused to give a penalty on the 43rd minute when Ince was felled in front of goal during another speedy charge into the box, before Boyle flicked one last Ledbury free kick over the bar to leave Town with much to do if they were to claim the full three points from this latest encounter.

This aim was made all the more achievable however shortly into the latter half of the game, when a brilliant ball from Trigg on the edge of the box enabled Ince to bag his sole goal of the day, with Darley then seeing fit to give Febery a rather stern talking-to, warning the lively youngster that he will be carded should his risqué challenges continue.

The free kick arising from Febery’s foul was deflected to be well-caught by Loader, and after Boyle raced across the box to see his curling effort being saved by the opposing keeper, a mis-timed clearance from Loader back downfield left it up to Dwayne Tyndale to perform the recovery clearance away from a threatening Wellington attacker.

The resulting throw-in turned out to be the catalyst for a pivotal moment of the game to occur however when Darley ruled Rooke to have got a hand to the ball while leaping against a Rangers forward at the near post, and after inadvertently gifting Wellington their valuable penalty, the visiting skipper’s game took a further turn for the worse when the official called him over to inform him that bookings would occur if his players persisted with late challenges and protests.

With the spot kick being comfortably struck in by Maturi on a very-much-unlucky thirteenth minute of the second period for Ledbury, Darley approached Merrick on the sideline as the Town manager continued to make his feelings known over the contentious handball decision which had been made against his captain, before the visiting boss chose on the 60th minute to bring both Curt Williams and Burns on to the field in exchange for Griffiths and Holder as his first substitute players.

Boyle responded to the new challenge which the penalty had provided by running rampant, firing the ball in from a deflected effort from Williams off the near post, before quickly going on to complete his brace as Loader cleanly caught a Rangers corner ball back downfield.

A 71st minute free kick from Boyle a few yards outside the box made it past the four-man wall of home defenders to be saved by their keeper, before an injured Ince then had to be taken off field by Merrick out of the box as the stricken striker was replaced by Pete Jeynes.

Boyle was then denied by a defender to see the ball falling back into the centre of the box, with an opportunistic Walker, gaining untold levels of confidence since his first hat-trick scored in senior level football against Shobdon seven days previously, trying his luck once again to see his follow-up effort being saved on this occasion by the keeper.

A superb Burns cross-shot then hit the back of the net to provide the icing on the cake for Ledbury, and after Sam Branch and Charlie Docherty entered the fray for Tyndale and Walker with five minutes left on the clock for the spectators who had braved the icy winds up to this point to continue to endure, a good final close-range save by Loader from his knees led to the New Street first string celebrating an assured win after such a shaky start to their latest league clash.

With three consecutive wins on the bounce in both league and cup play, Merrick’s men have a chance to recuperate over the next fortnight, ready to face current league fifth place holders Ludlow Town Colts over at the Ludlow Stadium in a final fixture of the year on Saturday 18th December (KO 2:00pm).