Timsbury Athletic made light of playing over the half of the match with only 10 players with a comfortable 3-0 win at home to Uphill Castle in the Uhlsport Somerset County League Premier Division. Three goals in the opening 19 minutes effectively killed the game off as Timsbury moved into the top five of the division.
The home side were ahead after just six minutes. Player/manager Liam Craze’s free-kick evaded the Uphill wall and sneaked into the net via a post. The visitors failed to create many clearcut chances throughout the whole match but Timsbury keeper Jack Scrivens had to move smartly to cut out a dangerous cross from Cam Steer. Timsbury striker Rhys Cook put Timsbury 2-0 up on the quarter-of-an-hour with a typical opportunist goal and four minutes later made it 3-0.
Ellis Hancock had a great chance to add a fourth but his shot was deflected wide. Another Craze free-kick was just wide of the post while in a rare foray at the other end Dan Thomas was too high. A great cross from Dan Barresi set up another opportunity for Cook but this time his header went into the side-netting. Three minutes from the interval a melee in the Timsbury area ended with Scrivens being shown a red card with Liam Ward going between the sticks up to half-time.
Substitute Sam Gregory took over in goal in the second half and he was in early action saving well from James Hodgkinson. Despite pressing for a goal Uphill Castle failed to significantly trouble a resolute home defence with efforts from Jack Askins and Steer both going well wide while Will Sneddon-Coombes’ free-kick sailed over the top. At the other end a header from Pele Sobers was easily held by visiting keeper Ryan Scott and two shots from Rio Bryant were comfortably dealt with. Late attempts for the visitors from Macauly Lamont and Ben Harris followed a similar pattern both going too high while Timsbury might have added a fourth when Pele Sobers’ tantalising cross just evaded his brother Rico.
Malcolm Tucker