MINEHEAD Under 13 Girls made the short trip along the A358 to face Bishops Lydeard, who last season finished in third place in the Somerset Girls Under 13s table - and came away with a hard-earned 3-1 success .

With the home side having a very strong youth set up, the Minehead team knew that they were in for a tough and competitive game. The opening ten minutes saw both sides settle, but Minehead soon took control, stringing passes together and forcing Lydeard back into their own half.

However in spite of them creating many scoring opportunities Minehead were denied taking the lead by some solid saves from the Lydeard goalkeeper. The breakthrough came after a scramble in the box, when the ball found its way to an area where the Minehead forwards kept their composure and fired home to make it 1-0 - a lead which was carried into half-time.

After the restart, Lydeard upped the intensity of their game and pressed hard, but despite this it was Minehead who added to their tally. A superb effort rebounded back off an upright to where a Minehead striker was waiting and she calmly doubled the advantage.

Lydeard, to their credit, kept fighting and pulled a goal back to make it 2–1, which set up a tense final twenty minutes. Both teams worked hard and pushed for the next goal, but it was Minehead who sealed the points when a corner was cleared only as far as the edge of the box, where a superb strike found the bottom corner of the net.

When the referee blew the final whistle it was Minehead who ran out the 3-1 winners.

This coming weekend Minehead Under 13 Girls will be hosting their Chew Valley counterparts at Allerford on Saturday where the kick off is at 11am.