Following on from our AoC regionals tournament victory last Wednesday we travelled to local rivals Richard Huish in our first league meeting of the season.

Team BTC started strongly and applied lots of pressure high up the pitch. BTC’s two strikers, Jamie Moss and Niall Carr, provided a tough physical battle for the Richard Huish defensive line to try to deal with. Soon enough Team BTC took the lead through fantastic pressure on the goalkeeper from Moss who was able to pressurise the goalkeeper into making a mistake which lead to the ball popping out to Carr who calmly finished the ball into the Huish goal. 10 minutes in and BTC were ahead.

Play continued in the same manner with BTC pressing high up the pitch and soaking up any Huish pressure with a back three of Paul Grant, Olie Hucker and Kyle Winter in complete control. The 20 minute mark saw BTC score their second. A perfectly weighted long pass from Grant found Moss clean through behind the Huish defence and he confidently chipped the onrushing goalkeeper and then tapped the ball in to an empty net.

Just 3 minutes after scoring their second BTC struck again, this time goalkeeper Tom Creed played a superb direct flat ball up to Moss who pinned the Huish centre back and neatly set Charlie Dodd on the edge of the box to be able to weave past two players and slot home. Team BTC’s central midfield three, consisting of two former Taunton District Schools players Charlie Dodd and Harry Butler and Jacob Mead, dominated large amounts of play and worked tirelessly to retain and also regain possession and ensure BTC kept the same tempo through to half time. Sure enough Team BTC went into the interval with a comfortable 3-0 lead.

Second half resumed and BTC started the half a little slower than the first and allowed Richard Huish to apply pressure and retain the ball in the middle and attacking thirds. After two corners and some neat build-up play, Huish scored back through Rhys Ford. A smart finish and a bit of hope restored.

Team BTC restarted play and amended their early half poor start by winning a series of throw-ins and free kicks high up the pitch, being able to then deliver balls into the box and put Huish under pressure once more. BTC were awarded a corner after some smart wide play from Jordan Lovibond. At 65 minutes BTC restored their three goal lead through a superbly won header at the back post by Olie Hucker.

As the game started to phase out and BTC were in control, they made a few substitutions and brought on Mario Franco, Kyle Lazowski and James Salt who all settled into the rhythm and flow of the game immediately and all impacted positively. At around the 80 minute mark, Dodds received the ball from Franco, turned well and managed to use his close control to get through a series of Huish defenders and slot the ball past the goalkeeper to claim his second and BTC’s fifth goal of the afternoon.

BTC managed the game well and saw out the result. 5-1 to Team BTC on derby day. We look forward to the reverse fixture later on in the season.