Somerset Premier Division: Timsbury Athletic 2-3 Chard Town

On Saturday Chard travelled up the A37 again, this time to Timsbury Athletic with a strong squad which included Kieran Bailey making his debut, playmaker James Boyland was unavailable.

It was a drizzly wet day but Timsbury started the brighter with a strong press from the start. After 13m they got their reward splitting the new pairing of Scott Wells-Burr and Kieran Bailey, Jason Contreras rushed out to narrow the angles but the shot was perfect and the home side took the lead.

Chard Town FC started to get into the game then the loss of Conor Fielder on 30m after he rolled his ankle brought Olly Board into the game. Just before half time Chard had the chance to equalise with a penalty, leading goalscorer Jordon Clapp stepped up but a great save from the Timsbury goalkeeper denied him his 9th goal of the season. Half Time 1-0

After a roasting from Homer and Stuart Parris, Chard came out for the second half in a determined mood and started to play some good pressing football. Well marshalled in the midfield by captain Alex Manley.

It wasn't until the 73m we finally got the breakthrough and a goal from Jordon Clapp after Joe Chamberlain had put some good chances astray.

Max Westlake had put a good shift in and he was replaced by Fin in the 83rd minute. 3 minutes later Fin put a great challenge in on the right and put a delightful cross in for Jordon Clapp to get his second of the afternoon and his tenth of the season.

Timsbury responded with vigour and on the 89th minute their attacker was tripped and they were awarded a penalty to make it 2-2. After fighting back it was heart breaking for the travelling supporters but the football team didn't give up and on the 90th minute in a goalmouth scramble the ball fell to the feet of Joe Chamberlain and he blasted the ball into the roof of the net to score the winner. 2-3

A crazy last 10m of football, unlucky for Timsbury who had worked hard all afternoon but lady luck was on the side of Chard Town FC today.

Chard Town FC finally have a home game next Saturday 10th February hopefully they will get a large crowd to welcome them back for the first home game of 2024.