Tipton St John 0, Alphington Reserves 3 Tipton suffered their third loss in a week and despite the difficult conditions, a rock hard pitch coupled with a strong wind, they were left wondering how they didn’t get at least a point from this match, writes Richard Williams.

They started brightly and as early as the third minute a good clearance by Barry Youlden was collected by Nick Feeney who ran with the ball before hitting a decent shot which was saved.

Lee Strawbridge then went close on 18 minutes when he returned a poor clearance over the Alphington keepers head only to see his effort go just wide.

Alphington had to wait until just after the half hour mark before seeing their first real effort well saved by Jack Walker with his foot knocking the ball onto his post before it was cleared.

On 37 minutes Walker again made a fine save pushing a chip shot away for a corner.

Right at the end of the first half Tipton put together a fine midfield move which ended with Strawbridge seeing his well struck shot go just wide.

He again went close on 65 minutes when he had a close range header saved.

On 75 minutes Alphington took the lead when they broke away from a poorly taken Tipton throw in the opposition half to score from a shot in the Tipton penalty area.

Tipton almost hit back right away when they broke up the left and Strawbridge hit a shot just wide.

Alphington then scored twice in the last couple of minutes to make the score 3 - 0, firstly with a tap in following a goalmouth scramble and secondly from a defensive mistake to allow another close range effort, which gave the final score line a very false and undeserved reading.

Man of the Match for Tipton was Lee Strawbridge who put in a magnificent effort throughout.