Late Goals Condemn Town To Defeat

Taunton threw away a two goal half time lead to lose 3-2 at home to Guildford City in the Calor League on 25 March. The victory was no more than the visitors deserved after being the better side after the break against a pedestrian Town who did not force a save out of opposition keeper Antony Hall. Several half chances came and went for the home side in the first half whilst Joe Perry had to foil City’s Nuno Pereira from close range before the Peacocks took the lead on 29 minutes when a move down the right involving Jamie Price and Chris Young ended with Price firing into the net off the far post. On the stroke of half time it became 2-0 to the home side after Young’s effort had been blocked by Hall but only as far as Ross MacNab who had the simple task of tapping the ball home. Any hopes of this acting as a springboard for further second half goals against an outfit one place off the foot of the table were sadly misplaced. Despite Perry saving Ben Walshe’s penalty early on after Pereira had been brought down, the visitors belied their lowly position and came close again when Joel Greaves crashed a shot against the bar. Apart from Young firing wide, Town did not come anywhere close to scoring another and were made to pay in the last ten minutes. Dom Ogun’s snap shot beat Perry at his right post to pull one back on 83 minutes and a minute into stoppage time the Town defence failed to clear their lines and Jamie Thoroughgood lifted the ball over Perry from twelve yards for the equaliser. An awful second half from Town was then capped when Guildford grabbed the winner two minutes later when Pereira dived to head in a left wing cross from Greaves. Match report online soon.

Reaction – manager Leigh Robinson said:” Utterly embarrassing is the only phrase I can use. Things went exactly the same as the game up at their place, we got in front and then got complacent. Goals change games and the fact is when Guildford threw everything at us we weren’t good enough to cope with it. Our quality and decision making in the second half was desperately poor but what concerns me most is the lack of leadership on the pitch during this period.”