A MINEHEAD XI lost 1-0 away to a Bishops Lydeard XI in what will have been deemed by both sides as a useful friendly at Darby Way on Tuesday evening, the hosts winning by the only goal scored in the opening ten minutes by Adam Willis.

Two half chances fell to Minehead’s top scorer last season Toby Waghorn, whose energy and impudence twice saw him rob the ball from the home keeper, only to fail to slot the ball home.

With Minehead continuing to have the lion’s share of possession in their opponents’ half, another opportunity was created by Waghorn’s continued harassment, this time following a George Sinnott long throw. An opportunity then fell to impressive triallist Ollie Miles, and a perfect supply from Will Singleton-Voss resulted in seasoned striker Guy Burns, who had also entered the affray from the subs bench, being the next to threaten to open their scoring, but his attempt also went wide.

In the second half Lydeard became slightly the more dominant in possession, but it was still Minehead who came closest to scoring through a Sam Jackson header, as well as the returning Matty Ronan going close still with a 25-yard rasper. Soon afterwards substitute Hayden Griffiths’ saw his shot go just wide of the post. Minehead’s Ollie Hall also went close on a few occasions.

As both sides chopped and changed their personnel frequently, the game became more of a practise match than competitive one as the second half progressed.

Minehead: Thomasz Kubaczewski, Bertie Harvey-Larmar, George Sinnott, George Painter, Louis Burge, Will Singleton-Voss, Matty Ronan, Josh Elston, Toby Waghorn, Ollie Hall, Ollie Miles. Rolling Subs: Stefan Phillips, Guy Burns, Sam Jackson, Ollie Miles. Minehead’s Man of the Match: Matty Ronan.

Minehead continue their build-up to the new season with a match against a Legends XI managed by Steve Perkins on Saturday (2p.m.).