Beer Albion Reserves scored an impressive 4-1 victory against tough opponents Alphington thirds in a Macron League Division Four match, writes Richard Honnor.

The win means that the Fishermen move up from sixth to fifth in the table, swapping places with their opponents.

The three-goal margin was comfortable in the end, but the game was finely balanced for the first 60 minutes and could have gone either way!

With a re-shuffled back line and with midfielder Alex Padget and keeper Steve Jones both making welcome returns, the Fishermen took time to settle.

Indeed, keeper Jones had to make several crucial saves early on to keep his team in contention.

Alphington were physically the stronger side and Beer’s midfield was having to drop deep to help out their overworked defence.

However, the Fishermen withstood the early pressure and started to assert themselves in the middle of the park.

Jacob Clode began to win some tough challenges thus creating the opportunity for his midfield colleagues Alex and Ollie Padget to express the attacking side of their game. Consequently, the chances started to come with Jay Catley and Alex Padget testing the Alphington keeper with good efforts from long range before Liam Cox opened the scoring for Beer on 23 minutes.

Clode’s teasing lob was chased by Cox down the right. The youngster withstood a strong challenge and cut in from the by line to chip the keeper from the acutest of angles to put his side 1-0 up.

Soon afterwards, there was a flurry of activity within a five-minute period. First, Clode lashed out at an Alphington defender and rightly received a yellow card.

The Alphington players were unhappy with the challenge and despite being awarded the free-kick the visitors’ centre back persisted in heated dialogue with referee Roberts and talked himself into an unnecessary booking.

This incident was followed swiftly by Alphington’s equaliser, when, on 27 minutes, their centre forward slotted the ball home after a quickly taken free kick caught the Beer defence cold.

Just two minutes later, the Alphington centre back received his marching orders when he received a second yellow card for bringing down Beer striker Taylor Rooke.

The game was evenly contested from thereon until, just before half-time, Rooke put Beer 2-1 ahead from close range after good work by Clode and Catley.

After the break, the visitors took the game to the home side and would have equalised on 50 minutes, but for a fine stop by Jones at close range.

As the half wore on, 10-man Alphington were unable to plug all the gaps as Beer took command.

The Fishermen went close through Cox on 59 minutes after a sweeping move and again on 61 minutes when the visitors’ keeper thwarted Ollie Padget.

But just one minute later, Beer increased their lead when Ollie Padget’s through ball found Rooke who beat the advancing Alphington keeper with a clinical finish for his second goal.

The Fishermen finished the game strongly against their tiring opponents and wrapped up the 4-1 victory on 92 minutes when substitute Billy Long provided the finish after neat interchange of passes between himself and Alex Padget.

Match sponsors Colyford Butchers decided that the best player on view was Beer midfielder Ollie Padget.

This weekend there are two matches being played at the Furzebrake. On Saturday, Beer first team host Newton St Cyres in a Premier Division game that kicks off at 3pm. The match sponsor is Rock Villa Off-Licence and Post Office, Fore Street, Beer.

On Sunday, Beer Reserves host Chard Town Reserves in the Grandisson Cup with a 2pm start.