Town finish second best in a see-saw match (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Town finish second best in a see-saw match

AFTER a good run in the Dr Marten's League, Cirencester Town FC will doubtless be disappointed to have finished as losers of Saturday's see-saw match when they were beaten 4-2 by lowly Shepshed Dynamo.

A determined outfit and currently third from bottom, Shepshed never stopped running and tackling for the whole 90 minutes.

The Corinium Stadium team were first to threaten when Ben Fitch's header was well saved by the visitors' keeper, Jordan King.

Nonetheless, Dynamo opened the scoring on seven minutes.

A cross from Simon Forsdick deceived the home defence and Justin Jenkins nipped in to head over the advancing Town custodian Mark Hervin.

Only four minutes had passed before the Centurions were back on equal terms.

A Keith Knight corner was only cleared out to Gareth Hopkins whose pinpoint cross to the far post was finished off with a diving header from Darren Robison.

Amazingly, within four minutes the visitors were again in front when Jenkins took advantage of a static home defence to get in a loping header over the top of Hervin.

Although Town piled on the pressure for long periods, when they did manage to get past Shepshed's back four, they found keeper King in commanding form.

Five minutes before the break, they were caught again. When Jenkins headed back Jason Knight's cross across the goalmouth, Forsdick managed to get a foot to the ball to force it into the net.

The second period started with Cirencester pushing everyone forward. They were nearly caught when Damien Hesky, who had replaced Jenkins at half-time, got on the end of Darren Grassby cross.

When his lob was only half-saved by Hervin, Dave Hunt had to clear off the line.

Hunt was involved in their next attack when he latched on to a loose ball 30 yards out and unleashed a tremendous shot which King did well to parry for a corner.

From Knight's flag-kick, Gareth Hopkins' header was only just over.

The visitors were now packing their defence with numbers and, from one build up, G Hopkins and Kevin Lee saw their efforts cleared off the line.

Some ten minutes from time, the home club were caught napping when Hesky blocked a Hunt clearance and then managed to squeeze the ball past Hervin at the near post.

With five minutes to go, Cirencester got a consolation goal when Gareth Hopkins got on the end of a Lee cross to send the ball into the far corner.