With Lakeside travelling to Cirencester for their league encounter with the Beeches it was disappointing to see the pitch in such bad condition. It was Lakeside’s intention to get off to a quick start, knowing how strong the Beeches defence has been over the last couple of seasons. Lakeside created a couple of good chances early on and were rewarded after only 10th minute when a corner from the left was headed on by Luke Hitchman with Bradley Barnard latching on to smash the ball home from six yards out. Lakeside were dealt a blow in the 17th minute when Sam James had to leave the field after falling awkwardly and spraining his ankle. Lakeside continued to penetrate the Beeches defence and after a couple of narrow misses Lakeside finally doubled the score when Kurt Burrows was put through by Bradley whose finish left the Beeches keeper no chance. The Beeches started to see more of the ball but were kept at bay by Rob Jones, Liam Powell, Harry Mansell and Mike Lloyd dealing with everything that was thrown at them. With half time approaching, Kurt broke away heading towards the box only to be brought down from behind. Cameron Smith stepped up to dispatch a wonderful free kick leaving the keeper routed to the spot.
In the second half the pitch was deteriating pretty quick in the middle of the park, which led to both teams playing the ball out wide and using the long ball more frequently. Budd Nicholson and Bradley were playing some telling balls to Kurt and Craig Graham, only to see their chances going narrowly wide or being saved by the Beeches keeper. With Beeches becoming more physical, they found themselves back in the game after a free kick was bundled over the line; despite Harry being left face down in the mud after being elbowed in the face and Rob taking a whack on the knee in the 70th minute. Beeches, with a sting in their tail, claimed a second goal two minutes later, which made this game a lot closer than it really was. With five minutes remaining, a ball was played to Kurt who was fouled from behind as soon as he entered the box. After a short delay, Cameron picked his spot with a well taken penalty to see Lakeside take home a well earned three points.
Man of the Match: Kurt Burrows
Managers Man of the Match: Cameron Smith
