Glos Northern Senior Div Two

Avonvale Utd 3 Smiths Athletic 2

AVONVALE UNITED kept their title ambitions alive with a 3-2 win at home against Smiths Athletic.

Vale came out of the blocks fast and dominated most of the first half.

Jamie Packer opened the scoring when he cut inside from the left on to his right foot and curled a superb shot into the top corner from 20 yards.

Packer scored the second when he made half a yard of space and finished well with left foot.

Vale played some good football during the first half and could have been further ahead before Smiths were awarded a penalty just before half-time which was converted to make the score 2-1.

Five minutes into the second half Smiths equalised from a well taken free kick and soon after Lloyd Price made a great save to keep the scores at 2-2. Vale drove forward for the winner and came close a number of times.

The introduction of Jake Harrison from the bench with 25 minutes to go helped inject some tempo in the midfield.

With 10 minutes remaining Packer drove a strike into the bottom corner from outside the box to complete his impressive hat trick and secure the man of the match award.

Stroud & District Div Four

Avonvale Utd Reserves 2 Alkerton Rangers 1

AVONVALE UNITED RESERVES came out on top in a bad-tempered encounter against Alkerton Rangers.

Goals from Freeman and Daniels gave them a crucial three points in their battle to avoid relegation.

An horrendous error from Sprange led to Alkerton taking an undeserved lead after 25 minutes. The stand-in skipper miscued a back-pass and presented the ball to the gleeful Alkerton striker who rounded the keeper and stroked the ball home.

Avonvale responded brilliantly and were level before the break, Freeman bagging his second in as many games as he latched on to an off-target Daniels effort.

Tempers were running high in the second half. Perhaps aggrieved at having a goal disallowed for a clear offside, the Alkerton players started to lose their heads and it was no surprise to see one of them heading for an early bath.

The Rangers midfielder picked up a second yellow card after a clash with the Avonvale left back.

This came after Daniels had given Avonvale the lead. The striker took advantage of some hesitant goalkeeping to bury his shot low into the corner.

Avonvale comfortably saw out the final 10 minutes with their numerical advantage and are now up to 11th place in the league.