MINEHEAD were held to a goalless away draw by Imperial in the first division of the Uhlsport Somerset County Football League.

Ninth placed Minehead travelled to sixth placed Imperial with the knowledge three points would see them leapfrog their Bristol based opponents, and in the opening five minutes a lively start saw them make the first two serious attempts on goal.

In the first minute, an opportunist 30- yard shot from holding midfielder Andy Hall needed an alert save from keeper Joe Harper and shortly afterwards another speculative effort from Blues top scorer Toby Waghorn, this time from a much closer range, brought another competent save from Harper.

A particularly harsh yellow card was then shown to Minehead’s industrious midfielder Matty Ronan, for his first, and relatively innocuous challenge, but it was Ronan’s break from midfield, followed by an inch perfect cross to centre forward Waghorn, which resulted in a well stuck shot smashing against the underside of the crossbar, with the ball bouncing down onto the goal-line with the backspin then bringing the ball back into play, reminiscent of the famous Geoff Hurst World Cup Final goal in 1966 (but with a few less people watching).

With Minehead attacking hard, the game was fully twenty minutes old before any Imperial player touched the ball inside Minehead’s penalty area, and Greg Turner was by far the least involved of the two keepers. Midway through the first half Minehead seemed to lose their impetus, and play became more even with their youthful forward Morgan Keeghan starting to cause Minehead some problems.

They did lose their influential defender and captain Kai Long just before the break, and the half ended with no goals having been scored.

Playing the second half down the slight slope, an incisive Minehead break ended with a powerful shot from Waghorn hitting a recovering defender which again kept the hosts on even terms, and a 35 yarder from Harvey Henderson flew a foot wide of the goal-frame.

Though Minehead enjoyed perhaps 60-65% of the ball over the 90 minutes, the home side had a golden opportunity to claim all of the points fairly late in the game, when a striker had a massive opportunity to win the game, but with an open goal at his mercy from 10 yards out, the home player shot wide.

The last attempt of the game fell to Minehead’s Guy Burns, who flashed a side-footed volley over the bar from just beyond the far post but only about four yards out, when a centre from the right flank had evaded home shot-stopper Harper.

Perhaps two points dropped on reflection, but there were positives to take from the game.

Minehead stay on their travels this coming weekend when they go back up the M5 to face Keynsham Reserves, who are currently bottom with just one point, but having played just five league games so far; they have games in hand on all sixteen teams above them. Minehead may be in for a tough time, with the Western League sides’ second XI likely to be still smarting and looking to avenge an 8-1 defeat at Minehead a few weeks ago.

Minehead: Greg Turner, Bertie Harvey-Larmar, Toby Morris, Louis Burge, JJ Knight, Andy Hall, Matty Ronan, Harvey Henderson, Toby Waghorn, Guy Burns, Fin Harran,Sub: Zak Dibden (Used)Man of the Match: Bertie Harvey-Larmar.

Brian Walder