Match report by Kevin O'Brien

Almondsbury UWE groundstaff did well to get this game playable, just, at the third time of asking, and Shepton's early burst proved pivotal as they eventually ran out narrow winners against the league's spirited basement club to progress to round three which will see them travel to Ashton and Backwell .
Shepton's front two of Joe Morgan and recent signing Solomon Wanjau-Smith, who was making his first start, caused all sorts of problems for the UWE defence in the opening stages with their pacy running. Morgan brought a good save from home keeper Chris Coles after 5 minutes, and although UWE's Stuart Alexander then brought a save from Tom Easterbrook, Shepton's next move upfield after 8 minutes saw Morgan intercept a poor clearance and round keeper Coles before drilling a low shot into an empty net from 15 yards to put his side in front. Two minutes later Morgan was denied a second by the goalpost after he again beat the home defence and Coles, but Shepton doubled their lead on 12 minutes from their next attack. Wanjau-Smith cut inside UWE centre back Ryan Meacham who desparately tripped the youngster and was lucky to only see a yellow and not a red card, as Wanjau-Smith would have been in on goal. As it was a penalty was rightly given, and the youngster picked himself up, confidently grabbed the ball and drilled the spot kick past Coles for his first goal for the club. Ash Willmott was denied a third for the visitors on 20 minutes when Coles did well to turn Willmott's well hit shot onto the outside of a post and out for a corner, but after UWE had been restricted to a couple of long range attempts from Marcus Thatcher, they pulled a goal back on 25 minutes through Jordan Davies. A poor clearance kick from Easterbrook gave UWE possession, for them to quickly work a cross into the middle where Davies was on hand to fire in from 15 yards. Ten minutes later they almost equalised after a long cross from Lewis Sheppard eluded everyone and dipped at the last second to clip the Shepton crossbar, before the half ended with Coles saving well from Ryan Mitchell's snap shot on the turn for Shepton.
After Shepton's fine start and UWE's response before the break, the second half saw much less goalmouth action, as the pitch turned into a sea of mud making quality football almost impossible to conjure up. That said, James Billing stood out for Shepton, superbly leading their back line to give Easterbrook an armchair ride once he had made a good stop on 50 minutes from Thatcher's well hit shot. After a quiet first half, Cameron Sanford also did a lot of good work in Shepton's midfield, and he combined with Wanjau-Smith midway through the half to feed the ever industrious Morgan, who fizzed a 20 yard shot inches too high. In the latter stages UWE conceded more and more free kicks and eventually picked up 5 yellow cards, but they rarely looked like taking the tie into extra time, with Willmott more active at the other end with a couple of shots just before the end from outside the box which just cleared the home crossbar. Dave Thorne made a welcome return to the side after a long injury lay off and came through the game in one piece despite taking one very heavy challenge.
MoM James Billing, with Joe Morgan running him close.

Team 1.
T.Easterbrook
2.D.Thorne
3.R.Banfield
4. G.Morris_Edwards
5.J.Billing
6.C.Sanford
7.R.Mitchell
8.C.Loxton
9.J.Morgan....scored one goal
10. S. Wanjau-Smith ...scored one goal and cautioned
11.A.Willmott

sub used
C.Peck
subs not used
L.Watson
H.Ratcliffe