MINEHEAD slumped to a 3-1 away defeat against fourth placed Wrington Redhill in the first division of the Uhlsport Somerset County Football League in their latest game.

Wrington started the match on the front foot and enjoyed more possession in the early stages. As early as the first minute they showed their intent, and went close to opening the scoring when Harrison Campbell hit the foot of the post.

However, The Blues did manage attempts on goal themselves during the first half including a speculative 25 yard effort from Ollie Hall which curled inches over the bar, and shortly afterwards Sam Jackson burst through the home defence after a perfect pass from Bertie Harvey-Larmar but his shot just cleared the bar.

The game remained end to end but Minehead were dealt a big blow on the half hour when goalkeeper Nathan Sheehan had to rush out towards a high, direct through through ball. With two strikers approaching him he was forced to come just out of his box and jump high to head the ball, before the first opponent could get to it. With his initial header going up rather than clear of danger, he had to hurriedly jump again to head clear of the second striker, which he achieved, but landing awkwardly he injured his ankle tendons leaving Wrington’s Lew Wilkins able the shoot home into the unguarded goal.

Defender Charlie Disney took over the gloves with Minehead re-grouping with substitute Jack Campbell-Farmer coming on as right back and Harvey-Larmar swapping to the left.

Early in the second half Ollie Hall showed great perseverance in chasing a “lost ball” and having robbed the last defender, he expertly lobbed the keeper from a wide position to put Minehead back in contention.

With the game flowing from end to end, Wilkins was guilty of missing a simple opportunity to restore Wrington’s two goal lead when presented with an open goal from a fairly central position inside the six-yard box.

After Blues substitutions saw The Blues bring on Andy Hall and Toby Waghorn, Disney made an acrobatic save to tip a close range header from Milkins over the bar.

Soon afterwards, however, he had little chance of saving centre forward Jack Hutchings’ right foot shot, which made it 3-1, effectively ending the game as a contest.

Minehead: Nathan Sheehan, Bertie Harvey-Larmar, Charlie Disney, Louis Burge, George Painter, Will Singleton-Voss, Stefan Phillips, Josh Elston, Sam Jackson, Guy Burns, Ollie Hall. Subs: Toby Waghorn, Jack Campbell-Farmer, Andy Hall (All Used). Man of the Match: Charlie Disney.

Victory enabled Wrington to stay in the promotion race. They are three points behind Ashton and Backwell who have played one more match.

Meanwhile, Stockwood Green won the big match between two of the promotion-chasing sides, beating Ashton 1-0 away. It enabled the Green to strengthen their position in second spot although they are still ten points behind Congresbury who have already clinched a place in the Premier Division next season.

Ashton & Backwell managed to hang on to third place although they are now six points behind Stockwell Green.

Minehead have their penultimate home match this coming Saturday when Burnham United come to The Rec for another first division game with a 3pm kick off. Minehead are lying tenth in the table, while Burnham are three places above them having accumulated six more points but have played one more match.