End of season can’t come quickly enough for Teversal

Bottesford arrived at Carnarvon Street in the worst run of form they have had all season, suffering four straight defeats that have seen the Lincolnshire club not only give up the leadership of the table, but also give up control of their own destiny in the race for one of the two promotion spots.

With Teversal on a similar run of three winless games, Bottesford knew a positive start could help to get them back on the right track.

To that end Bottesford got off to the perfect start, taking the lead after just 30 seconds.

Teversal started off passing the ball around, but Pembleton robbed Cox with Boulton making some excellent movement up top to allow the midfielder to thread a great through ball that saw captain Boulton lead by example to clinically finish from 16 yards.

With the boost of the goal Bottesford dominated the early proceedings, with the industrious work of McDonald and Pembleton giving Barwick plenty of the ball to demonstrate his full passing range. But, for all the possession, they failed to create any goalscoring opportunities of note until they doubled their lead on 30 minutes.

The goal came after Teversal had started to have their share of the play, and when Tolley played a well-weighted pass in behind the visitors’ defence and Burrell raced past Spall to break clear, it was disappointing for the home side to be pulled back by an assistant’s flag raised for offside.

Then salt was rubbed into the wound when Brackenbury took the free kick and Boulton eventually laid the ball off to Thompson, who clinically smashed the ball past the stranded Brooks.

The second half became a far more even contest and the home side played some entertaining football themselves, and maybe the fact they went chasing the game to try to put a halt to their own poor run allowed Bottesford to put two further goals on the scoreboard.

Burrell and Jones went close for Teversal with Burrell having the best opportunity from 18 yards, but the striker failed to test the eccentric Herrick in the visitors’ goal with Jones forcing the custodian into a routine save.

Any hopes of a comeback should have been ended well before the 73rd minute with Thompson, after good work by McDonald and Boulton, wasting a golden opportunity, denied by an excellent save by Brooks.

But the third goal saw Johnson take charge in the home defence before releasing Thompson, who showed better composure than his previous effort to notch his second of the afternoon.

When you are up there in the table you always seem to get those debatable decisions, but the Bottesford fourth looked a shocker on 84 minutes, when the home side only cleared their lines to McDonald and pushed out, leaving Boulton behind.

McDonald then mis-hit an effort that went straight to Boulton who appeared four yards offside. But he clinically finished and the flag stayed down to Teversal’s anger.

The game was over, and in the final few minutes Newton fed Burrell, but again Herrick wasn’t asked any questions as he made another routine save to keep a first clean sheet in four games.

The 4-0 scoreline was harsh on the home side, but that shouldn’t take away the fact the Bottesford did enough to take all three points.

On Saturday Teversal are on the road for the final time to face Toolstation Northern Counties East League Division One championship leaders Cleethorpe Town with a 3pm kick-off.

TEVERSAL: Ryan Brooks, Jordan Schofield, Jacob Ashley, Glenn Tolley, Colin Cockerill, Ricky Starbuck, Bradley Cox (Lewis Weaver 65), Sean Dickinson (Craig Newton 73), Josh Radford, Triston Burrell, Jordan Jones. Subs not used: Andy Hauton, Oscar Govan-Greenacre, Joe Darby.

BOTTESFORD TOWN: Leigh Herrick, Tom Spall, Nathan Smith, Louis Brackenbury, Tom Johnson, Terry Barwick, Danny Gibbons (Craig Bridge 63), Chris McDonald, Danny Boulton, Martin Pembleton, Mike Thompson. Subs not used: Jack Start, John Corbett, Andy Sharp, Alex Harle.

REFEREE: Jamie Waters of West Yorkshire.

ATTENDANCE: 66.

TEVERSAL MAN OF MATCH: Glenn Tolley.