Tuffley 1

Brimscombe 0

Brimscombe & Thrupp's title hopes took a dent as they fell to a narrow defeat against lowly Tuffley Rovers on Saturday.

The first real chance of the game came eight minutes in when Ollie Pitt played a low cross in to the box from the right which found Jack Smith who rattled the woodwork before the ball was cleared.

Tuffley then found themselves in a dangerous position and felt like they should have had a penalty but the referee waved away all appeals as he dusted himself off after a collision with a player.

They took the lead moments later when Jake Rhodes found the net despite the initial save from Ash Gale.

Tuffley took the ball up the other end and caused all sorts of problems with Rhodes again but some heroic defending for the Lilywhites on the line denied them a two-goal cushion.

Edd Major was the latest Brimscombe player to try his luck but his effort on target was smothered by Merchant but the assistants flag was up anyway. With the time edging closer to half time, Rovers had another great effort through Kieran Alder but Ash Gale was on hand to deny him with a fantastic save.

Tuffley came out of the blocks the quickest in the second half, Rhodes curled his effort over from the edge of the area.

Sam Blackie replaced Horrell, while James Campbell and Josh Swales replaced Smith and Major for the visitors.

Brimscombe pushed hard for the equaliser, Kyle Pitts headed the ball straight at the keeper. Jake Parrott tried his luck but his shot was high of the target. A fantastic effort from Brimscombe to level came at the 87th minute when Swales’ cross found the head of Campbell who couldn’t get the power behind it and found the hands of Merchant in the Tuffley goal. Swales also had chance to level very late on when the ball found him at the back post but the headed effort went wide and Brimscombe succumbed to defeat against a determined Tuffley side.