FOOTBALL: Brave Ciren shock league leaders (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

FOOTBALL: Brave Ciren shock league leaders

11:57pm Monday 8th October 2007

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Cirencester Town 1, Brackley 0.

WHEN your two latest signings combine together to score in the fourth minute of their first game in tandem, a manager is entitled to feel a warm glow.

When the goal provides three points against table-topping opposition, a stiff drink to prolong that glow would be understandable.

On Saturday, at 3pm, Adi Viveash's Cirencester Town were helping to prop up the Southern League Premier table without a win to their name.

By teatime they had won away at high-flying Rugby. By 9.20pm on Monday night, they had added the unlikely scalp of clear league leaders Brackley.

It wasn't easy: Brackley had the sort of possession that away teams rarely enjoy, but they were unable to breach a steadfast Ciren defence.

Ciren weren't lucky: they defended like Spartans and they had man-of-the-match candidates wherever you looked. And they were always dangerous on the break.

When Chippenham loan signing Luke Hopper and his new strike partner, the ex-Merthyr livewire Rhys Carpenter tired, their replacements, Oggy Hunt and Steve Robertson, could both have put the game to bed.

How Oggy blazed over with the goal at his mercy in the 77th minute, only he will know, while two minutes later, Robertson's skill and persistence engineered a chance for himself, which he slammed just wide.

Brackley had claimed all three points against Merthyr over the weekend with a 90th minute winner.

On Monday, the clock had again ticked past full time when a looping right wing cross from substitute Anthony Fontenelle eluded both attackers and defenders and was heading for the bottom left-hand corner.

Matt Bulman, so often Ciren's saviour this season, came to the rescue again.

He had been so well protected by his back four throughout the game that he was rarely troubled. So it was to his credit that, though seeing the danger very late, he got down sharply enough to tip it around the post.

At the other end of the game, Ciren had made the perfect start. New boy Carpenter, whose transfer paperwork had gone through only that same afternoon, threaded an inviting ball through the middle to the rampaging Hopper.

The defence never looked like catching him and, faced only by keeper Richard Knight, he calmly put it away off the inside of the right post.

The new strike force combined again on 15 minutes, a Hopper header came off Knight into the path of Carpenter and though the angle was tight, he should have buried it rather than hitting the post.

The experienced Brackley side began to dominate exchanges, although the breathless pace of their game often counted against them. First-time balls were the order of the day when a more measured approach might have unlocked the resolute Ciren defence.

Scott Hadland and Ollie Stanbridge should both have tested Bulman late on in the first half, the latter after a typically sweet left-footed cross from Tom Winters. But both were only half-chances.

Brackley's best opportunity came immediately after Ciren had what looked like a legitimate penalty shout turned down in the 65th minute.

Bulman got down smartly to save with the aid of the post and instead of bulging the back of the net with the second strike, Brackley found the outstretched right boot of Lee Molyneaux on the line.

It was by no means one-way traffic, though. Andrew Chapman's dead-ball service proved a constant threat, whether delivered with right or left foot, and it was one of his corners that Knight spilled which led to Oggy's horror miss.

Luckily, it didn't matter and Cirencester have climbed to 14th in the table.

Churlish though it may be to single out individuals on a night when they all played a huge part, it would be wrong not to acknowledge the 90-minute dynamism of Nathan Haisley in midfield nor the growing maturity of Dan Wallington at left back. More please, lads.

Cirencester: Bulman, Collins (capt), A Stanley, Molyneaux, Wallington, Else, Etheridge, Haisley, Chapman, Hopper (Robertson, 56), Carpenter (Hunt, 71).

Unused subs: Hilder, Bailey, Viveash.

Attendance: 153.

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