Millwey Rise 1sts 1, South Zeal 1sts 1

Still suffering from the gashed knee he received during his goalkeeping heroics at Witheridge last week, Matt Lewis was forced to miss this game together with Ashley Hall also injured. On the plus-side, Millwey welcomed back Zak Meaker and Luke Thurlow.

Having lost their previous encounter at South Zeal 9 – 1, it was with some trepidation Rise entered into the game. However, with the strong wind behind them, they were immediately on the attack.

In the first ten minutes they could have been three goals to the good instead of just one. Nathan Womersley, an early thorn in the visitors side as, first he forced the keeper to gratefully push the ball around the post, before latching onto a through ball and slotting it into the net to put Rise one up.

South Zeal gradually came back into the game with a firm strike which keeper Nathan Hoole pushed over the bar while another was just wide of the upright.

After 25 minutes the visitors drew level with a clever finish to a well executed build-up. At times the Rise defence were in danger of being over-run but with a lot of determination, a little luck and safe keeping by Hoole went into the break with honours even.

The visitors began the second period with the wind at their backs putting Millwey's defence under more pressure and Hoole was again called on to keep them at bay with some timely interceptions.

Fifteen minutes into the half the referee blew up and to everyone's' amazement gave a penalty to South Zeal which Hoole did well to push away. Rise kept pressing both in attack and defence perhaps a little too hard leading to Sam Burke being sin-binned.

Millwey began making further inroads into the visitors half but could not put the final pass or shot together to add to their score. The game finished with both teams attempting to get the elusive winning goal but some last ditch defending, especially by the Rise defence, with Shane Featherstone playing a vital role at its heart, defied any addition to the score.

Together with Featherstone, Hoole in goal and Zak Meaker were all contenders for the man-of-the-matchaward but it was the effort of the whole team that saw a satisfying result for Millwey.

Next week the 1st X1 welcome Cullompton Rangers 2nds to Cloakham and the 2nds travel to Exeter Panthers. Both kick-offs at 3pm.