Centurions win despite defensive problems (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Centurions win despite defensive problems

Rugby Town 1 (Beard, 5), Cirencester Town 2 (Richards, 17, Hopkins, 73)

CIRENCESTER fielded yet another patched up defence to face a confident Rugby team and were further disadvantaged when Scott Griffin was forced off after 10 minutes.

Rugby led on five minutes when Steve Evans bundled debutant Kyle Lapham out of the way to nod a David Stone cross back for Robbie Beard to net from 10 yards.

With Viveash outstanding in his calm leadership from the back and encouraging Lapham to forget his mistake, Cirencester forced Rugby into errors.

On 17 minutes, Lee Smith timed his run onto a Wimble free kick to head beyond Afandiyev onto the far post.

Marc Richards calmly nodded in the rebound.

The match turned on an amazing triple save by Paul Thompson after 27 minutes. Stone steadied on a loose ball five yards out and drove deliberately for the bottom corner.

Thompson got across to parry the ball, bounced up to deflect the follow up off Beard and then plunged to paw away Evan's header aimed just inside the post.

Cirencester took control, with Smith now dominating the Rugby defence.

Richards reached a swirling Wimble corner on 39 minutes only to deflect the ball off his own shoulder and over the bar.

Kevin Halliday, on 43 minutes, calmly played Nathan Haisley into space.

Haisley dummied the defence to feed Wimble, who beat Tullin and cut back his cross for Steve Cowe to dash in and net, only to be denied by a dubious flag.

On 55 minutes, Stone and Thompson collided; with Wimble replacing the custodian it looked grim for Cirencester.

Instead they kept winning possession and would not allow Rugby to get through them.

Smith kept on shredding the home defence and his run and precise cross on 73 minutes picked out Gareth Hopkins who lashed his shot in off the underside of the bar from 20 yards.

Foundering on the Viveash rock, Rugby were now beaten.

Indeed, if Steve Cowe had been more precise he could have notched twice in the last five minutes when Smith again sent in two perfect defence splitting passes.

Man of the match: Adie Viveash (Cirencester). Cirencester: Paul Thompson Michael Jackson 55, Neil Arndale (c), Kevin Halliday, Nathan Haisley, Marc Richards, Adie Viveash, Kyle Lapham, Lee Smith, Gareth Hopkins Michael Symons 85, Scot Griffin Steve Cowe 12, Shaun Wimble. Unused substitutes: Steve Cook, Lee Davies. Rugby: Farhad Afandiyev, Chris Tullin, Craig Herbert (c), Andy Peaks, Tim Wooding, Matt Green, Delroy Gordon, Jamie Kearns Rory Squire 73, Robbie Beard, David Stone, Steve Evans Nathan Thompson 78. Unused substitutes: Ryan Byrne, Dean Thomas. Referee C Wade (Boston). Attendance 191.