Evo-Stik South League, West

Slimbridge 1 Cirencester Town 3

CIRENCESTER returned from Slimbridge with their first points of the new Evo-Stik South League, West season after a tough challenge at Thornhill Park.

The Centurions' win came at some cost as defender Ellis Dunton faces some time out of the game after picking up a nasty facial injury in a clash of heads.

Ciren are also without injured midfielder Jack Horrell at the moment. Slimbridge were quickly out of the blocks and took the game to their opponents with the diminutive Marley Thomas heavily involved but it was Cirencester who opened the scoring after 16 minutes when Alan Griffin converted a penalty kick after he had been knocked to the ground as he looked to get on the end of a cross.

Two minutes later Slimbridge were level as Thomas latched on to a ball over the top and darted down the left channel of the penalty area before crossing for Joe Stokes to finish from six yards.

Cirencester regained the lead when Adam Connolly collected a clearance on the edge of the home box and struck a terrific shot inside the right post.

After the interval the home side pressed for an equaliser and at times some ‘backs-to-the-wall’ defending was needed from Cirencester to keep them at bay.

The game was finally put beyond ‘The Swans’ on the stroke of full-time when Ben Whitehead confidently tucked his shot inside the right post.