Ross Town start with victory
Ross town first team kicked off the new season in the Herefordshire League Division 1 with a local derby against Weston on Saturday and won the match 1 - 0. Town's pre-season games had gone well, but this was the real test in their quest to gain promotion to the premier division at the first attempt. They were still missing a few players, most notably captain Spud Jenkins, serving a one match ban following a sending off last season, and it will take a while for manager Adam Bridges to find his best first eleven with the mixture of established, new, and returning players at his disposal. The Weston team contained a number of ex-Ross players, notably Alex Brown, Carl Roberts and Wes Hall. The first fifteen minutes was a scrappy affair with both teams coming to terms with being in a competitive game at last, and with an uneven pitch. Ross began to take the upper hand but without creating many chances, and only a header, following a Burnham right wing corner, by Halfpenny, caused the Weston keeper any discomfort as he had to stretch to tip the ball over the bar. The second half saw Town again have the majority of the play, but again the Weston keeper had little to do, except in the sixtieth minute, he just managed to push a deflected free kick from Cook round the post. Ross's persistence finally paid off on 70 minutes when Justin Halfpenny chased a wide ball on the right, and his shot confused the visiting keeper, and under pressure from Morgan, allowed the ball to drift over his head and into the net. This was not a great game by any means, but Ross will be happy to pick up the three points and prepare for next week's game against Ewyas Harold. Ross Town : Dan Morris, Greg Bedford, Casey Morgan, Ainsley Jones, Shaun Aston, John Tookey, Aden Cook, Paul Burnham, Lee Walker, (substitute Liam Parry), Dewi Stuart (captain), (subsitute Andrew Densley), Justin Halfpenny, (substiture Ben Timmins).