Somerset County Division Two West

Highbridge Town 3, Worle FC 3

HIGHBRIDGE Town manager Matt Pitt was left ‘gutted’ after Worle struck an 85th minute equaliser to the Rec to deny his side all three points.

Goals from Will Bailey (2) and Chris Taylor had fired Town into a 3-1 lead, after falling behind early on – but two goals in the final 15 minutes denied Pitt’s side the win – but the manager was quick to praise his side’s ‘heart’.

He said: “I thought the boys battled tremendously and showed so much heart and I am gutted for them that they could not see the game out after gaining such an advantage.

“I thought all three goals could have been avoided but we should look at the positives rather than the negatives and put it right when we welcome top of the table Combe St Nicolas to the REC.

“We are a match for any team on our patch and having only lost one all season at the REC, I am very confident we will avenge the 4-1 hammering given to us by Combe much earlier in the season.

“We just have to go out now and win as many games possible to finish as high as we can and next season if we keep these boys available and playing together every week we will be title contenders without doubt.”

Within a minute of the kick-off Worle found themselves a goal up after an unstoppable drive from 25 yards.

It took Town a good 15 minutes to get into the game and they almost equalised on 20 minutes when Will Bailey found himself through on goal to drag his shot wide.

But five minutes later a good through ball by Ryan Elliott found Bailey through again and this time he made no mistake to tie the game up.

Town were on the front foot now, and a lovely angled through ball by Bailey found the on rushing Chris Taylor to meet the pass and run through and dispatch past the Worle keeper to put Town 2-1 up at the break.

Town started off the second-half as they had finished the first and scored a third, with Bailey getting his second of the afternoon after a high ball into the box from Taylor was nodded in at the back post.

Tackles started to fly in with both teams putting everything on the line and with 15 minutes to go, some sloppy marking allowed the Worle player to turn and strike the ball high into the net to make it 3-2 - and with five minutes remaining, Worle got their equalizer with a duplicate of their first goal - the ball was controlled and Worle’s big striker, who had come off of the bench, was allowed to turn and strike the ball into the top corner from 20 yards.

Worle had a player sent-off in the dying minutes, but Town were unable to find an all-important fourth goal.