A priceless 80th minute goal from substitute Ryan Bath gave Frome an excellent 1-0 win at 5th placed Hendon and the second win on the bounce moves Frome out of the relegation places with the Christmas period to look forward to.
After last week’s win against rock bottom Staines Town, a much sterner test awaited Frome as they travelled to Hendon, a side sitting in 5th place in the league, but on a poor run of form having lost four of their last five games, so hopes were high, especially as Frome were able to name the same side for the second Saturday in a row, with the only change being that Rex Mannings started in place of Trsitan Plummer.
The match started with both sides playing good football on an excellent pitch, and Frome were the first to show as Danny Boness saved from a Jordan Rogers free kick in the first minute, and following a free kick in the 5th, Sam Teale headed the ball back to Marcus Mapstone who chested the ball to allow Rogers to strike a volley that just clipped the top of the bar.
Boness was in action again in the 15th to save from Mannings after he had been set up by a Rogers header, and with Boness pushing a Josh Morgan-Williams shot round the post and Teale heading over from the resulting corner, the action was all one way at this stage.
With Morgan-Williams proving very difficult for the home side to deal with, he headed down in the 20th to allow Johnny Gorman to bring a save from Boness, and with Gorman hammering a free kick from the edge of the area straight at the home keeper in the 40th and with Mannings going just wide on the stroke of half time,, Frome were the only side who looked likely to score, with James Carey having an untroubled 45 minutes in the visitor’s goal.
The second half proved to be a more even affair, but they had obviously stiffened up their defence, and with the Frome defence giving nothing away either, the match was beginning to look like it would end in a goalless draw, but that all changed in the 70th as Danny Greaves brought on “supersub” Ryan Bath, and the move paid off in the 80th as a superb cross-field ball from Gorman found him unmarked on the left and he cut inside to curl a right foot shot high into the corner to give Frome the 1-0 lead that they richly deserved.
Frome went close again two minutes later as Mannings found himself in a similar position, but this time Boness was able to get to the shot and parry it just behind the onrushing Tristan Plummer who would surely have score if the ball had been a couple of feet further forward.
As Hendon threw everything at Frome in the remaining minutes, it seemd as if they had grabbed a last minute equaliser as a Olomowewe header looked to be going over the line, but somehow man of the match Connor Roberts managed to clear the ball off the line with a waist high stooping header that defied belief.
Frome now await the visit of Merthyr Town at 1 pm on Boxing Day and will be keen to repeat the 3-1 victory that they gained in Wales on August Bank Holiday, and it could prove to be a Christmas cracker.
For the second match in a row, Frome Town man of the match was Connor Roberts, though both Josh Morgan-Williams and Johnny Gorman were close seconds in the award this week
FROME TOWN: Carey, K Miller, Teale, K Scott (Knowles 69'), Mapstone, Roberts, Gorman, Monks, Rogers (Bath 64'), Morgan-Williams (Plummer 86'), Mannings.
SUBS NOT USED: R Scott, Brace.
The Robins are back at Badgers Hill on Boxing Day as we face Merthyr Town. Get your tickets at https://www.weareba11.com/tickets. (Kick-off: 1pm)
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