REPORT: Frome Town 2-0 Taunton Town

Early goals from Troy Simpson and Tom Mehew gave The Robins a vital 2-0 win against high-flying Taunton Town.

In a match full of incident, 2nd from bottom Frome took a two goal lead within eight minutes against second placed Taunton and despite playing with ten men for the whole of the second half, defended doggedly and celebrated their deserved victory at the end.

With the side still missing Marcus Mapstone and perhaps with one eye on the future, Danny Greaves started the match with Dan Whitley in midfield and with fellow youngster Joe O’Loughlin coming on and playing a very good game in the second half.  

On a very windy, but thankfully dry afternoon, playing with the wind at their backs, Frome unbelievably took the took the lead in the 1st minute with their first attack as Tom Mehew latched onto the ball in the middle of the Taunton half and played a through ball to Troy Simpson who immediately turned a hit a low shot unerringly low into the far corner to the delight of the home fans.

Those same fans were pinching themselves seven minutes later as Mehew made full use of the conditions to curl an absolute peach of a 35 yard free kick into the far top corner, with Chandler Mallet unable to even get near the ball and Frome now had a 2-0 lead for the first time for a long time.

It could so easily have been 3-0 in the 12th as Simpson headed a Rex Mannings cross wide from 5 yards out, and at this stage Taunton hadn’t even shown in the game, perhaps believing that all they had to do was turn up for the victory, and after another Mehew free kick had caused problems for the visitors, they did go close in the 25th as a 25 yard shot from Ollie Chamberlain hit the upright before coming back onto the back of the diving Rob Brown before going to safety.

Taunton again went very close in the 33rd as Andrew Neal found space to hit a snapshot onto the base of the post before it came straight back into the arms of the surprised Brown and perhaps it was going to be one of those days where fortune smiled on the home side.

Controversy erupted on the stroke of half time as Ricky Scott was shown a straight red card as he attempted to volley a dropping ball only to catch the diving Pierce MItchell who had elected to stoop low to head the ball, and despite everyone accepting that it was totally accidental, the referee saw things differently and flashed the red card.

Frome brought on Joe O’Loughlin and Ollie Knowles early in the second half to play at left back and right back respectively, and to be honest, Taunton really failed to make any headway in breaking down the dogged defence of the ten men, and with Simpson and Bath always keeping them honest at the back, they failed to make use of the wind at their backs that had perhaps intensified and Rob Brown never really had to make a non regulation save in the entire 45 minutes.    

However, the youngsters in the Frome team all stepped up to the mark in this match and with Connor Roberts and Sam Teale outstanding at the back, defending the lead with ten man was achieved with few problems for an excellent victory.

THE ROBINS XI: Brown, Fletcher (Knowles 53'), R Scott, Mehew, Roberts, Teale, Whitley (Gorman 85'), Monks, T Simpson, Bath, Mannings (O'Loughlin 45').

UNUSED SUBS: Locke, Crossman.

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