Cirencester Town 3

Paulton Rovers 5

ENTERTAINMENT and goals are a given at the Corinium Stadium these days but this time it was Cirencester Town who were on the receiving end of a defeat in an eight-goal thriller against Paulton Rovers, writes Danny Hall

The visitors had inflicted a rare defeat on league leaders Yate last Saturday and raced into a 4-0 lead inside half an hour here to rattle Ciren’s play-off ambitions.

A strong rally by the home side in an absorbing end-to-end second period kept the result in doubt right until the final whistle, but they just had too much to do after a nightmare opening 30 minutes.

Ciren’s new centre back pairing of Alex Albert and Babz Jarra had an easy time for their debut clean sheet together seven days previously against Fleet, but in these tricky windy conditions and against more robust, hard-working rivals, they were found wanting early on.

Paulton’s first attack in the seventh minute resulted in Ryan Gay glancing an unmarked header home from eight yards. It quickly got worse for Charlie Griffin’s side as Jarra was outmuscled in the box and the ball broke to Dale Evans who found the corner of Luke Merchant’s net with a ruthless finish.

When Merchant pulled down a Paulton striker in his attempt to thwart another attack, Jack Ball coolly beat the stopper low to his left to make it 0-3 in the 23rd minute.

And referee Declan O’Shea was soon pointing to the spot again as Albert was rather harshly penalised for a bouncing ball hitting him on the hand.

Ball put his second spot kick in the same place and this time Merchant dived the wrong way.

Ciren had enjoyed plenty of possession but the Paulton defence were not in as generous a pre-Christmas mood as their opponents and they had to work hard for any chances.

Two fell to Tommy Anderson who twice tested the keeper with stinging shots before Jack Freeman had the ball in the net, only for play to be brought back for another handball incident in the area.

Ciren’s prolific Ben Whitehead made no mistake from the spot in the 31st minute to give the hosts some hope heading into the break.

Ciren produced an excellent reaction after the interval, bombarding the Paulton area, and having got back to 3-4 with half an hour remaining, looked odds to salvage at least an unlikely point.

Firstly Alan Griffin, who like many in red and black, was a totally different player in the second half, got enough on a corner to find the back of the net in the 57th minute.

Four minutes later it was 3-4 as Freeman produced a clever curling finish after an Aidan Bennett pile-driver came unluckily back off the crossbar.

Ciren threw men forward looking for the equaliser and were almost caught on the counter in the 68th minute, Merchant having to save bravely at Ball’s feet.

But the stopper could nothing to prevent Ball’s hat-trick in the 76th minute after a Ciren attack had broken down.

Still Ciren pressed forward in an exciting finish, with Owen Windsor – who this week was called up for the England Schools U18 squad – coming on to add pace and skill to the attack.

However, Paulton continued to put their bodies on the line where it mattered – with right back Troy Anderson capping a marvellous man of the match display.

Then keeper Rob Brown scuppered any chance of a final Ciren assault with a sensational save from Griffin deep into stoppage time.

Cirencester Town: Merchant, Dunton, Spalding, Pook, Albert, Jarra, Anderson (Morris, 68), Freeman (Windsor, 80), Griffin (capt), Whitehead, Bennett.

Paulton Rovers: Brown, Anderson, Prictor, Hitchings, Laird (capt), Malpas, Monelle (Tippins, 85), Evans, Ball, Gay (Harvey, 46), Withey (Hillard, 65).