Frome Town secured a narrow victory in a hard fought, somewhat scruffy game at Badger’s Hill. The heavy pitch passed an earlier inspection but soon began to cut up.
Frome has an opportunity to open the scoring within the first minute or two when Kane Simpson narrowly failed to connect with a driven cross just a yard from goal and this was an early indication of the game to follow. The hosts dominated possession in the first 45 minutes without really creating any chances of note until the stroke of half time when a quick break saw a save by the Cirencester goalkeeper rebound to the feet of Dan Cottle who made no mistake and took Frome into the lead at the interval.
Cirencester started stronger in the second half as expected with a deficit to overcome and just a few minutes in had their best chance so far when a cross driven in from the right was narrowly volleyed over.
Immediately Frome broke and Kane Simpson rounded the goalkeeper only to be brought down in the area. Alex Monks easily scores into the corner to double the lead with just 5 minutes played.
The visitors went all out attack from this point and started to pin Frome back, getting a breakthrough on the hour mark when Sam Teale tripped an attacking player to concede a penalty which was duly converted.
Cirencester continued to dominate with Frome restricted to the odd breakaway and Alex Monks was dismissed with a straight red card on 75 minutes handing the initiative to the visitors. Fortunately for Frome they were unable to capitalise on the extra player and they managed to see the game out, reducing the gap at the top of the table to 4 points.
The teams will meet again on Tuesday I the Southern League Cup.
Attendance: 233
MoM: Mark Cooper
Goals: Cottle, Monks
Red Card: Monks
