Mark Ramsden attempts to maintain his balance after being tripped by a Castle Cary opponent. (Picture by Steve Sarre, 0869082)
VALE REC were the only Guernsey team to progress out of the first round of a county cup after they defeated Castle Cary in the Somerset Senior Cup at the Corbet Field on Saturday.
Towards the beginning of the season, Bels lost 4-1 to Moneyfields and Athletics went down 2-1 to Bournemouth FC, both in the Hampshire Senior Cup.
To be fair to Bels and Tics, it is hard to imagine that their opponents were as bad as Castle Cary.
But, in turn, taking nothing away from a young Rec side, you play what is in front of you, and the yellow and greens fought hard and they earned the victory.
‘I thought probably over the 90 minutes we deserved to edge it,’ said Rec boss Phil Corbet.
‘It was exactly what I expected from Castle Cary – they were a honest group of players.
‘It’s a learning curve for our players and as we said at the start of the season, it’s an evolution not a revolution.
‘We had four teenagers in the finishing 11.’
It was the visitors who were on the scoresheet first after their striker Steve Njie rounded Rec keeper Jody Bisson before feeding Marcus Price for a simple tap-in.
The reds were the better of the two sides at the time.
They kept creating problems for Rec at corners and 10 minutes before half-time came very close to scoring from one of these through Andrew Mitchell, but the midfielder’s free header at the back post went just over.
A couple of minutes later and against the run of play, Mark Ramsden, who had an impressive game in the centre of the midfield for Rec, found the back of the net with a beautiful curling free kick from 25 yards out.
The home side then took the lead early in the second half, just as the rain started to come down to soak an already heavy pitch, through Gareth Holden when Castle Cary’s rotund keeper Jamie Stewart spilled a long-range low shot and the striker was on hand to tuck it away.
But, as is the way sometimes, a team can take their eye of the ball after scoring and that is exactly what Rec did as their opponents struck back within a minute thanks to Njie with a toe poke.
However, Holden eased his side’s worries just after the hour mark when he put away a long throw into the box.
It was another sloppy goal.
The west-country side changed to three up top, but Rec never looked like conceding again.
It was not a game that will go down in the annals of footballing history as a classic, but that did not bother Corbet.
‘That was a battle, but that was what we entered for – to learn how the game is played off the island,’ he said.Somerset Senior Cup: Vale head coach Corbet feels victory over Castle Cary was deserved
Article posted on 9th November, 2009 - 2.29pm
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