Yetminster put in a valiant defensive effort against BVFL Division II high-flyers Dolphin Hotel but were comfortably beaten as the Sharks were unable to end 2014 on a high note, their hopes of a Semi-Final berth in the Division II Cup all but over.
The Sharks welcomed back Dan Muckley & Ashley Redford for the visit of Dolphin who were looking to secure their place in the Semi-Finals with victory.
The hosts almost got off to the perfect start with Redford and Norton Payne combining down the right-flank, with the latter providing a beautifully-crafted cross but Sam Carver's glancing header drifted wide of the far-post. Yetminster had another decent opportunity not long after, but Nathan Ruscoe failed to test Dolphin Hotel goalkeeper Greg Taylor after latching onto Jamie Lukosius' pin-point pass.
That was as good as it got for the home side in the first half though as the visitors exerted their authority and height-advantage, and were it not for a battling performance from a backline under heavy fire, the scoreline would most definitely have been more representative of Dolphin's dominance on the ball.
There was an early flashpoint when Payne brought down Daniel Bardwell-Dix wide on the Yetminster right, the latter immediately causing confrontation with the young right-back and earning himself a caution from referee Jeff Hann for his troubles.
Time after time the centre-back pairing of Lukosius and Mark Clifton snuffed out opposition attacks with superbly timed interventions, with full-backs Payne and Adam Roman also doing well to foil the Hotel advances.
Payne typified Yetminster's fighting spirit when he scrambled back to deny Dolphin star-man Charlie Browne the chance to test Yetminster manager & 3rd-choice stopper Ben Jones when it looked like Browne was clean through.
Jones didn't have to wait long before he was called into action to deny Browne from close-range, before pulling off a string of saves to keep out efforts from Chris Pullen & Dean Glass.
Yetminster's clean-sheet was broken as half-time beckoned though, as the Sharks failed to deal with a long-range throw-in that was flicked on by Glass for Pullen to loop a header over the flailing Sharks keeper.
It was a cruel blow to the hosts, who in spite of the swathes of pressure from their more illustrious opponents, had looked effective in their defensive dealings until that point.
After the break Dolphin looked to consolidate, and after a raft of early chances claimed their second as Pullen seized upon an error by Dan Muckley before beating Jones to the loose ball to fire home from 9 yards.
Hotel captain Joe Todd added a third 10 minutes later to kill the contest after a heavy coming-together in the penalty area that left Mark Clifton laid out on the turf, as Nathan Whittaker wriggled free to tee Todd up with a looping cross to the back-post.
Yetminster continued their dogged resillience, and still endeavoured to create opportunities, with Carver foiled by a goal-line clearance in the hosts' best second half chance.
That resillience had it's limits though, and when Browne was felled in the penalty area with a little under 20 minutes to play, the referee had no option but to award Hotel a spot-kick.
In all of the 3 previous meetings between the two-sides Dolphin had managed to score 4 goals on their way to 2 wins and 1 draw out of 3. Browne ensured that that run would continue, firing his shot from 13 yards low into the bottom corner of the net, narrowly escaping Jones' out-stretched arm.
Dolphin were wasteful though in the final exchanges, squandering a handful of decent opportunities from attacking set-pieces that failed to unduly trouble the Welshman, whose efforts had earned him Yetminster's Man-of-the-Match award, although in truth it would have been difficult to look beyond any of the defensive outfit in light of their unfailing effort and determination.
Defeat, while a bitter pill to swallow, came with some positives for the Sharks that they will look to take on with them into the new year. Their profligacy in front of goal however, remains.
