Devon Sport
FOOTBALL: Deadlock for Willand and Tiverton
2:00pm Tuesday 21st February 2012
WILLAND Rovers and Tiverton Town drew 0-0 in a friendly on Saturday.
The match was organised for Tiverton's sponsors' day, their original Les Phillips Cup fixture at home to Larkhall Athletic having been postponed due to Larkhall's Vase commitments.
Despite dominating the opening half hour, Tiverton Town could not make a breakthrough against a Willand side hoping to return to form following three straight defeats.
The nearest either side came to scoring in the first half was when Tiverton's Michael Nardiello was upended on the edge of the box by Darren Hawkings on 24 minutes.
Andy Taylor's curling free kick eluded Willand's wall but hit the far post before cannoning off a defender for a corner.
Ten minutes later saw Willand's best chance when Kevin Hill slipped over allowing Khaled Badavi through with only Chris Wright to beat but his shot flew into the higher branches of the tree behind the goal.
With the half time introduction of playmaker Jamie Skinner, Willand saw a lot more of the ball but Wright was rarely troubled although Badavi should have tested him after 48 minutes however the ball just missed the target.
The weather deteriorated and Tivvy found themselves running into horizontal rain which made the surface even more slippery but both teams did their best to entertain although goalmouth action was at a premium.
Willand will be happy to keep a clean sheet but Tivvy will hope that their forwards find their shooting boots now that they are returning to league fixtures after an enforced one month break.
The one bonus for Tivvy is that this extended their unbeaten run to 12 games in all competitions.
Willand Rovers (White):- 1 Darren Cann, 2 Ian Patchett, 3 Shaun Goff (15 Jamie Skinner, half time), 4 Darren Hawkings (12 George Rogers, 58 mins), 5 Ben Mammola, 6 James Ansell, 7 Danny Jee, 8 Rob Norrish (captain), 9 Dean Stamp, 10 Khaled Badavi (14 Danny Baily, 61 mins), 11 Perry Carpenter.
Tiverton Town (Yellow):- 1 Chris Wright, 2 Josh Concanen, 3 Russell Jee (14 Adam Faux, 61 mins), 4 Kevin Hill, 5 Paul Kendall (captain), 6 David Steele, 17 Andy Taylor, 8 Danny Clay, 9 Michael Nardiello (16 Jules Emati-Emati, half time), 10 Joe Bushin (12 Tom Gardner, 84 mins), 11 Liam Ellis (15 Josh Searle, half time)