Match Reports Season 2010 / 11 Monday April 25th 2011 Paulton Rovers Home Monday April 25th 2011 Zamaretto Southern League Div 1 (SW) Frome Town 1 Paulton Rovers 0 Frome Scorers: Lewis ( 8) Entertainment Value: 4 Crowd: 287 Star Man: Ryan Bennett With Frome Town resting Jamie Cheeseman, Dean Flockton, Josh Brigham, Matt Peters, Dean Evans, Mike Perrott, Tom Pass, Mark Cooper and Ricky Hulbert prior to the big playoff semi final at Mangotsfield on Thursday, you might think that Paulton Rovers would have had a fairly easy task in front of them in this end of season derby. You might think that, but you would have been wrong and Frome showed the strength in depth that the club have and easily matched Paulton, winning 1-0 thanks to a superb Chris Lewis strike in the 8th minute. A good crowd of 287 gathered for this final match of the season but the home crowd were disappointed to see ever present Ben Thomson hobble off after 6 minutes, which must cast a doubt over his fitness for Thursday. Reynold Turnock replaced him and as Frome pressed in the 8th minute, a long Paulton clearance was controlled well by Jack Metcalf, who looked up and passed the ball to Chris Lewis who controlled the ball with his back to goal, turned and unleashed a superb volley from fully 30 yards that bounced once and then buried itself in the corner of the Paulton net.   Paulton were stung into action and started to take the game to Frome, but they never really looked threatening, and Frome always looked likely to hit them with a counter attack.  Paulton's keeper Phillips was forced to make two headers 15 yards out of the penalty area as he found himself playing sweeper in the 16th minute, and twice in the next few minutes Lewis and White combined well, with the Paulton defence only just clearing the ball in time. Frome's captain Matt Smith let fly from 30 yards in the 32nd minute with a shot that just cleared the far post, and Ryan Bennett was unlucky with a header from a corner in the 38th minute. With Frome's returning goalkeeper Darren Chitty looking as solid as ever at the back, and the defence of Bennett, Reaney, Metcalf and Allison performing tightly as a unit, Paulton's best chance of the half came in the 45th minute as Frome's McKenna glanced a Cleverley free kick with his head and Chitty was forced to just tip the ball over the bar to prevent an own goal. Turnock very nearly increased Frome's lead within 20 seconds of the restart as he burst into the Paulton box, but a deflection took the ball away for a corner. Jordan replaced Lewis in the 48th minute and Paulton started to show signs of obvious frustration as they failed to cause Frome any real problems at all. Darren White's shirt showed how strong modern fabrics must be as he caused Price real problems in the box in the 61st minute, and a few seconds later he was presented with a golden chance as Paulton's Barnes passed the ball directly to him at a range of 10 yards, but his dinked ball over Phillips bounced agonisingly past the far post. The 66th minute saw White produce a superb run into the Paulton box, ending with a perfect left foot cross that just evaded Turnock on the far post. Frome were almost caught on the hop in the 76th minute as Paulton broke quickly from defence, but Metcalf and Reaney showed their pace as they recovered quickly to break up the attack. Jordan and Turnock combined well in the 81st minute with Turnock perhaps taking one touch too many and the shot was easily saved by Phillips. There was no real barnstorming end to the match, Frome looked comfortable and always likely to pinch another goal, and Paulton never really achieved a shot on the goal in the entirely ninety minutes, so full credit to a Frome side that were certainly playing together as a team for the very first time. The entire playing squad and management were given a standing ovation at the end of the match, and regardless of what happens in the playoff matches, this is the highest position that Frome have ever finished in their entire history. Ryan Bennett was chosen as man of the match by representatives of Clive Lewis Financial Ltd who had sponsored the match.                 Frome Town Paulton Rovers Officials Ollie Barnes Charlie Rich Billy Cooper Kack Nix M Derrien R Dabbs A Smith Kyle Phillips Stuart Tovey Jack Allward Ollie Price Alex Ball Craig Loxton Ben Cleverley Chris Lane Rob Claridge James Billing George Booth Match Sponsors Clive Lewis Financial Ltd. Match Ball Zonkey Ltd. Mascot Kieren Perrin (Darren’s nephew)