match report by Kevin O'Brien

in Saturdays FA Vase tie is a home tie in the next round against Camelford on 3rd October. Hopefully Shepton can again prevail against the Cornish side that set them off on their best cup run for some years in season 2013-14 after the memorable trip to their place.
Both sides had players missing last weekend, and former Shepton player George Booth had the first half chance for Cheddar early on after a misplaced pass allowed the visitors to mount the first attack of the game. Lee Davidson set up Shepton's 1st chance for Jordan Townsley in the 9th minute, who headed wide, before Ben Lacey stole the show for the rest of the opening period, as he started to tear Cheddar's defence apart with a number of pacey runs that the visitors could not cope with, and to put Shepton in control by the 20 minute point. Lacey opened the scoring on 17 minutes with a great strike after a 40 yard run past two opponents before hitting an angled shot across Cheddar keeper Michael Dangerfield and in off the far post from 20 yards. Three minutes later Lacey turned provider after another mazy run to the byline, before picking out a pass to Syd Camper who struck a firm shot first time to beat Dangerfield from 12 yards out to open his account for the club. Almost immediately another misplaced pass, this time by Shepton's Ben Cleverley, let in Cheddar's Danny Griffiths, and Cleverley was grateful to his keeper Dan Fox who kept out Griffiths' shot before also saving another Cheddar effort, this time from Adam Jones. On 25 minutes Lacey went on yet another powerful run, before shooting narrowly too high from distance, and the game was still less than half an hour old when Shepton gave Cheddar yet another chance from a misplaced pass, this time from skipper Craig Loxton, who like Cleverley shortly beforehand had keeper Fox to thank for coming to the rescue again with another good stop from the lively Jones. Near the end of the half another good Shepton move saw Ross McErlain pick out Lacey with the pass of the day, for Lacey to set up a decent chance for Dave Thorne, only for the full back to clear the opposing crossbar by a conservative five yards or so.
Cheddar's occasional pressure before the break had mostly come via Shepton's generosity in conceding possession to them too easily in our defensive third, and early in the second half this malaise continued, especially when Camper made two slip ups in quick succession. Luckily the visitors could not capitalise with a goal, but they did grow in confidence for a while and enjoy more of the ball up to the hour mark, around which point Fox made another decent save from Jones. Shepton cut out the error count in the last half hour though and started to increasingly look better on the ball again as the clock ticked on, which seemed to increasingly frustrate the visitors as they picked up three bookings in quick succession as the tackles continued to fly in. Shepton were no shrinking violets themselves and ended up with two cards also, but more importantly with 10 minutes to go they also picked up a third goal as a result of Cheddar's third card which had resulted from a foul on Lacey just outside Cheddar's penalty area. Cleverley stepped up to fire a well placed shot past Dangerfield for his third goal in two games, to kill the game off. Fox did have two more saves to make at the end, from Mason Gardener and then from Jones' follow up effort at the expense of a corner, and he would have been annoyed when the ball flew into the net off Loxton's head for Shepton to concede an own goal from the resulting cross, but the result was by then already beyond doubt, as Shepton progress to the next round.
Ben Lacey, as stated above, was outstanding for Shepton with George Zaharia having his best game to date for the club. Dan Fox was kept busier than he was in his previous game and also did well with several good saves, but credit to a gritty Cheddar side who kept Shepton on their toes for the whole 90 minutes. The main downer for the side was the injury to Lee Davidson who had had a solid first half but then had to go off with an ankle injury. Syd Camper took his first goal for the club well, and Clevs did what Clevs does for the second game in a row proving that there is still plenty of life in the wand yet.

Team

1. D.Fox
2.D.Thorne
3.L.Davidson
4.G.Zaharia
5.R.McErlain
6.L.Hedges
7.B.Cleverley.....scored one goal
8. C.Loxton.....cautioned
9.J.Townsley.....cautioned
10.S.Camper.......scored one goal
11.B.Lacey.........scored one goal

subs used
H.Ritchie, A.Willmott and R.Cousins