Evo-Stik Southern League West
Paulton Rovers 0
Cirencester Town 3
CIRENCESTER TOWN gave their manager Charlie Griffin the reaction he was looking for after their 8-2 defeat at Salisbury in the week with a commanding 3-0 win at Paulton.

“I’ve got an honest bunch of lads and it was just a matter of getting the performance out of them,” said Griffin.

“I didn’t want to praise them when we were 1-0 at half-time because there was still so much to do, but they were all exceptional in the second half.

“I just asked them to keep the ball moving because we have players who can hurt defences and that is what happened. That is as good as I’ve seen from us this season.”

Griffin relied on a thin 13-man squad with six who may have made the starting line-up sidelined.

Club captain Alan Griffin, Matt Jones, Matt Coupe and Ellis Dunton were all out injured, Jack Watts was ill and Michael Pook was away.

Teenager Mason Lewis, recalled from his loan spell at Longlevens, was a revelation at centre back, alongside the equally resilient Jordan Stoddart, who played the last 20 minutes hindered by cramp until substituted late on.

Paulton’s attacks repeated broke down against this pair and the host’s influential danger man Josh Morgan-Williams was eventually forced to go so deep looking for some service that he lost his effectiveness.

Ciren were able to welcome back player-assistant manager James Mortimer-Jones for his first game of the season and his experience proved invaluable.

Meanwhile, up front Ben Whitehead worked tirelessly as the lone striker in front of a five-man midfield.

Whitehead and Henry Spalding, who Griffin described as ‘coming of age in this game’, could have had a lot more than their goal apiece, and within a minute of coming off the bench at the death, Development striker Sam Walsh also joined the party with a clever curling strike.

Whitehead had given Town the perfect start when flicking home a Henry Spalding corner at the near post on two minutes.

Although Paulton had plenty of possession thereafter they rarely troubled Town keeper Matt Wieczorek, indeed the visitors continued to have the best of the chances.

The pick of them was when Whitehead ghosted past a defender on the byline, cut back on to his left foot and forced a great low save from Andrew Hannah.

Playing downhill in the second half it was all Cirencester as Hannah repeatedly came to his side’s rescue.

He denied Whitehead with a flying full length save and then in a one-on-one, either side of the hour mark. Spalding was also twice thwarted in as many minutes by the surprisingly agile Hannah, but soon after that the Ciren wide man was picked out by Felipe Barcelos on the right, skipped past two defenders and curled a delicious shot across the keeper, prompting a shirt-over-the-head celebration usually reserved for Match of the Day.

There were further chances for Whitehead and Spalding before the lone striker selflessly put in the better-placed Walsh and the youngster produced a precise finish.

It was a second clean sheet in three games, their best display of the season, and they were by no means flattered by the three-goal margin.

The test for Ciren must be whether they can do it back to back for the visit of Evesham United – and the return of the free-scoring former Centurion Mat Liddiard – on Tuesday night.

Cirencester Town: Wieczorek, Christopher, Bennett, Mortimer-Jones, Stoddart (Walsh, 88), Lewis, Loader (Horrell, 77), Connolly (capt), Whitehead, Barcelos, Spalding.