Sudbrook CC B 7 Chepstow Athletic 1

East Gwent League Division 2

Sudbrook CC B 7 Chepstow Athletic 1

THE only game to survive the monsoon weather, this match had the lot - goals, misses and goalmouth scrambles interlaced with rain, hail, sun and high winds, writes Bob Cypher.

But as a gamble, it paid off for Sudbrook boss Gary Vaughan whose team had not played since February 1st when they were on the receiving end of a 6-0 defeat at Tintern Abbey.

“We heard the 3G at the leisure centre would be available so we decided to play the match there,” he said before the kick-off.

“The rest of our games this month - home and away - have been postponed and the players just wanted to get out there and play.

“We would rather play on the 3G than have a huge backlog of fixtures at the end of the season needing to be played in midweek.”

Already dropping behind in the 'played' column, Sudbrook picked up a useful three points with a second-half performance which yielded six goals.

Defending the bottom goal in the first half, Sudbrook, with Jason Cave, Rob Thorn and Richard Lund busy up front, created a number of chances which either swirled away in the wind or were well defended by Athletic.

Lund broke the deadlock but it was short-lived as Athletic’s Luke Branson fired a low shot past keeper Sam Atkins - a score which lasted to half time.

Hail and sunshine arrived at the start of the second half and Sudbrook scored early on, Thorn applying the final touch to a low drive by Cave, before the ball crossed the line before Lund tapped a low cross from Paul Harris into an empty net to make it 3-1.

The points were sealed when Harris, lurking unmarked at the far post - headed the fourth from Thorn’s nod-on and Lund completed his hat-trick with another typical run and shot.

Tom Knight and Cave added the sixth and seventh goals to leave Vaughan happy with his decision to play on the 3G.

“We lost our last match so we wanted to get another win under our belts,” he said.

Athletic’s player/manager Jake Parkinson praised keeper Nick Taylor but admitted his team had found it tough against Sudbrook.

“We put out an inexperienced side that didn’t play to the conditions and were missing influential players,” he said later.

“Nick made some great saves but we were punished after the break.

“We just didn’t have the legs in the middle of the park to compete with a very good Sudbrook side.”