Frome Town bagged a comprehensive win over county neighbours Swindon Supermarine at Badgers Hill, marking their first home league victory of the season in the process. Alex Monks, Archie Ferris and Albie Hopkins were all on the scoresheet in what was a throughly convincing performance in bitterly cold conditions.
For the first time in a long time, Frome headed into the game off the back of a win, that being a 2-0 victory away at Hanwell, confidence in the camp was high and that reflected early on in the game. Patient build-up play in the final third eventually saw the ball fall to Rex Mannings, who laid it off for Monks, the midfielder took a touch and unleashed a powerful effort from distance, arrowing the ball into the far corner to give the BA11 side an early lead.
The Marine did respond well and showed plenty of threat down both wings, particularly through Michael Elias-Fernandes on the right hand side. The winger was involved in several attacks, and in the tenth minute, he pulled back for his teammate, but the effort flew over the clubhouse. Just three minutes later, another ball in from Elias-Fernandes was half cleared, but only as far as Oliver Mehew, who picked the loose ball up, cut in and out, before flashing a left footed shot wide.
The hosts then responded to the pressure with a chance of their own as James Ollis received the ball down the left and wormed his way inside before finding Ethan Vaughan who’s powerful strike on goal was routinely saved by Daniel Brabham.
After a frantic first 15 minutes, the game then did appear to settle down, although the visitors persistence in playing out from the back put them in trouble time and time again but Frome failed to capitalise on any of these mistakes.
Kyle Phillips was then called into action in the 34th minute, denying Mehew who diverted Zackariah Kotwica’s low cross towards the middle of the goal.
Just when you thought the half was starting to Peter out the game came to life again, Hopkins picked the ball up and with no real options fired an effort towards goal which was well saved by Brabham and just moments later a mis-hit cross from Mannings nearly sailed in, clipping the top of the crossbar.
Jake Lee was then fortunate to only receive a yellow card after pulling Ollis down who could have potentially been through, with the question mark being whether he would have been able to reach the ball or not.
The last action of the first half was a defensive error from the away side, Brabham’s clearance found the feet of Ollis, but the goalkeeper managed to redeem himself, sliding in to snatch the ball from Ollis before he could get a shot off.
The second half began with a more controlled approach from Frome who nullified the early threat from Swindon Supermarine’s wide players which had caused them problems in the first 45 and created chances off the back of it, including a Hopkins back-post cross which went past everyone, however if he took an extra second he could have spotted Ollis free just in front of the penalty spot.
However that missed chance was quickly rectified as Mannings won a free-kick off the back of the cross and Hopkins stepped up, whipping a peach of a delivery which Ferris flicked up and over the keeper and into the back of the net.
You could sense that past the hour mark, frustration had well and truly crept into the way side, evident of a speculative 40 yard free-kick attempt by Ryan Campbell, which unsurprisingly didn’t go in. The visitors frustrations boiled over further when Vaughan appeared to be tripped inside the box, but despite loud appeals from the Frome faithful, no penalty was awarded.
The points were then wrapped up and delivered to the Frome fans as an early Christmas present in the 83rd minute when Ferris turned provider after receiving a through ball from Hopkins, he could have easily shot but unselfishly squared it back to the winger, who sat his man down before firing a composed finish into the bottom corner capping off a fantastic afternoon.
There is still plenty of work to do in the league but for now attention turns to the Somerset Cup on Tuesday when we face struggling Bath City. The Robins will be eager to break their hoodoo against the Romans but they’ll need the backing of their supporters once again to make it happen.
Live updates and match report written by Harrison Richards
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Match Day Santa - from the Swindon Supermarine site - but who was it?
Who said that Frome were as good as relegated, Well how ridiculous! Many said to me that the
2-0 win at Hanwell was far more impressive than the bare score line. So one could sense a cautious optimism pre kick off.
Within 5 minutes Monksie had scored with an absolute thunderbolt, very similar to Bobby Charlton’s goal against Mexico in the 66 World Cup. What a season this lad is having – he was outstanding again yesterday. And, if one player deserves back to back victories and a first home win of the season then it’s certainly Monksie.
No doubt we played very well in that first half and could have had more. Swindon came here with a record of…