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Gala Wilton v Avonmouth 24 February 2024.

If Avonmouth thought their journey up the M5 to Fairmile to play near to bottom
side Gala Wilton was going to be an easy Saturday afternoon they were in for a
shock. Despite the continuous rain during the week the pitch was in superb
condition and Avonmouth came storming out attacking right from the start and
should have been four goals up within the first 15 minutes. The one dangerous
player for Gala down the right was Jay Dare who had a great chance but hit his
shot wide of the Avonmouth right hand post. Avonmouth’s poor finishing continued
and they had to be content with just the one goal from a great finish by Matt
Groves after 13 minutes. The Avonmouth technical area team were still disbelieving
their sides lack of finishing ability but they continued to create the majority of
chances as they attacked with pace and numbers and looked particularly
dangerous from set pieces, but Gala defended stoutly and were just the one goal
adrift at the break.
Josh Pearce started the second half just as Avonmouth would have wanted with a
neat finish on 53 minutes to make the score 0-2, but Gala soon replied on 61
through a Mike Baron volley into the far corner following a corner. After this Gala
came more and more into the game playing good football in the middle of the pitch,
albeit without creating anything clear cut in the box and with Avonmouth keeper
Tom Bradley confidently clutching every cross in the air meant Gala’s scoring
opportunities were limited. However, Avonmouth started to sit deeper and
appeared to be content to try to see the game out at 2-1, but following an
interception when the Gala defence were playing the ball out from the back, we
witnessed an excellent finish from Pearce to make it 1-3. Just five minutes later on
89, a superb one-two with Dillan Kerr on the edge of the box saw Pearce complete
his hat-trick for a 4-1 win and a more realistic scoreline plus another three points
for Avonmouth. The result puts Avonmouth 13 points clear at the top of the
Gloucestershire County League and with two games in hand over second placed
Stoke Gifford United.