Frome Town edged out Bishops Cleese in a tightly contested affair at packed out Badgers Hill.
A first half strike from Sam Meakes was enough to give the BA11 side all three points, in front of a huge crowd of 690, further boosting their title hopes.
Danny Greaves made a couple changes to the side that drew 0-0 with Exmouth last Saturday, with injuries and fitness levels in mind, Thomas Duffin started in place of the injured Sam Heal, whilst Kane Simpson returned to the eleven, Reece Rusher also made a welcome return to the bench.
It was a cagey start to the game from a Frome perspective, with no real clear cut chances falling the way of either outfit.
The first real chance came nine minutes in, when The Mitres carved through the Robins midfield, it fell to Toby Holland, who would have been disappointed to send an effort well over the bar.
Despite being up against it for parts of the opening 20, Meakes managed to break the deadlock 21 minutes in, when a cross from the right hand side, just evaded the in-form Simpson, but it fell in to the path of Meakes who picked the pieces up drilling past Lewis Clayton in goal to give the Robins an important lead.
The advantage was then nearly doubled just three minutes later when Meakes won a 50/50 battle against the defender, then running through on goal, he fired a left-footed shot which was tipped just past the post by Clayton.
The away side did respond well to the pressure, they dragged a shot just wide of Kyle Phillips right-hand post in the 33rd minute after a cut back, Pierce Mitchell then intervened two minutes later with a big tackle to deny a clear shot on goal.
Just before half-time a reckless challenge from Ben McLean on Kane Simpson was met with a deserved red card from referee Andrew Sheppard, giving Frome a huge advantage going in to the second half.
However it didn’t quite pan out as most would have expected, Frome struggled to make the ball stick for large parts, and despite being a man down, Bishops Cleeve dominated the ball for large parts, albeit without creating a whole lot.
Despite a solid first half from Clayton he nearly got himself into trouble at the start of the half when he sliced an attempted clearance behind him, towards the goal, he managed to spare his blushes however, recovering well and clearing the ball.
There wasn’t much action from that point to the 75th minute however, Frome struggled to gain control of the ball in midfield and upfront even with a man advantage, but the back three of Sam Teale, Warren Maidment and Mitchell, as well as Matt Wood when he came on, all put in superb shifts, meaning the away side created little with all their possession.
A big chance then fell to Zak Drew in the 76th minute, he picked the ball up just past the half-way line and took off, beating two or three defenders, he found and opening but could only send his effort straight at the keeper from a narrow angle.
Reece Rusher was then introduced three minutes later after being out for six months, he provided some much needed energy down the right hand-side, assisting the hard-working Meakes with the press.
Rusher nearly got a goal on his return too, Drew ran through the middle but was taken out by Stephen Davies, played continued as the ball fell to fellow substitute Will Taylor, who clipped a cross towards the back post where Rusher couldn’t quite keep his header down.
After a nervy last few minutes, fantastic game management saw Frome through to the final whistle, earning them a massive three points.
Its play-off contenders Larkhall up next who have been in incredible form recently, so we’ll need as many of you fans up there as possible.
Match report and live updates by Harrison Richards.
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Not convincing but 3 points which keeps us in the title hunt. Have to take our chances although another clean sheet. So maybe a defender should have got m. O. m need 2 wins from remaining game. Which is going to be hard .but can't tell on Melbourne to drop points
So good luck to the boys.
A curious night at ‘The Hill’
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A crowd of almost 700 supporters were rendered into muted passivity by what they were witnessing on the playing surface at Badgers Hill last night.
Down to 10 players in the second half, Bishops Cleeve responded admirably to their task, monopolising the ball with skill and purpose for long periods of play but unable to create that elusive end product.  Defensively, the Robins provided yet more evidence of how resolute they can be when the tide is flowing against them. An overall performance that some supporters no doubt found frustrating to witness but was in truth, three points fully merited.
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Some curiosities prevailed throughout the game: most noticeably the visiting goalkeeper’s day-glow…
Old Soldiers Never Die, they only Fade Away...
I remember Kalem very well and what a lovely humble man he was too and a very whole-hearted team player.
Another ex player also passed away very recently - Roger March who's best season for us was in 68/69 when he played 30 league games, scoring 10 goals in a successful season where Frome finished 5th in the Western League.
Without Davies we look a shadow of ourselves, we miss his creativity, his crossing ability - which opens up defences and the skills that brings our other players into the game.
Reece Rusher got in an energetic 10 minutes tonight and hopefully he’ll come through it OK - He will now be the pivotal player that could take us to the league title or promotion via the play offs. He has that match winning capability – fingers crossed on his fitness!
Tonight, against 10 men, for the whole second half, we were totally outplayed and struggled badly, looking very fatigued, compared to the ultra lively Mitres who missed a couple of very score-able first half chances and reduced us to Wimbledon-esque…