Tuffley Reserves seize Stroud League initiative with victory over Minchinhampton
Tuffley Rovers Reserves moved to second place and closed the gap to Minchinhampton by beating Minch 3-1 on Wednesday night.
Rovers moved to within four points of the leaders, but have five games in hand over Minchinhampton – plus head to Wednesday’s visitors next weekend.
A double from Nathan Hopkins and an effort from Antoine Thompson had Rovers 3-0 up at the break, with Craig Mills pulling one back for a Minchinhampton side who improved drastically after half time.
Wednesday’s result sees Rovers move to title favourites alongside third place Old Richians, who are only a point behind and have four games in hand over Minchinhampton themselves.
Tuffley head to Old Richians on the final day of the Stroud League season on Tuesday 28 April in what could be a title deciding fixture.
Next up for Rovers head to Dursley Town Reserves, before their trip to Minchinhampton on 11 April – which is Minch’s next fixture.
Tuffley started well, with Zak Jones picking out Carter Matthews on the right side of the Minch box, but his effort was saved by Jack Thomas.
Matthews had an outstanding first half and moments later he got in down the right again, with his pull back leading to a blocked effort which fell for Nathan Hopkins to fire home.
The winger nearly made it two moments later, but once again Thomas saved well at his near post.
Thomas was called into action again within seconds, saving Marco Rinaldi’s free kick.
Luka Kennedy was Minchinhampton’s brightest spark in a poor first half. Kennedy was tripped on the left corner of the box but after firing the free kick into the wall, he thrashed the follow up high and wide.
Two goals in the final minutes of the first half all but killed the contest. First, Hopkins beat the offside trap and deliciously lobbed Thomas for his second of the game.
Then in injruy time, Thomas came out of his box and after a poor pass to the right, Antoine Thompson stepped in before clipping home from nearly 30 yards.
Minchinhampton needed to improve after the break and they did, to their credit.
The visitors needed to score the next goal and came close when Sam Field broke into the box and fired off the bar.
But three minutes later, they were gifted a route back into the game when Craig Mills’ free kick from pretty much half way bounced in the box and through Robin Hoffland, who was put off by Nat Buckland’s run across him.
However, Tuffley did well to make the game a little bit scrappy and in reality, Hoffland remained untested for the remainder of the game.
Hopkins should have sealed the deal and his hattrick with just under twenty minutes left, but after racing through on goal, got a horrible bobble and sliced wide.
A late Minchinhampton free kick was flicked onto the far post as a number of red shirts converged on the ball and that summed up their 90 minutes, too little, too late.
Tuffley Rovers Reserves: Hoffland, Jones, Thompson, Smith, Hughes, Jordan, Rinaldi, Hopkins, Matthews, Mann, Hambling
Subs: Blair, Neate, Robbie, Collier, Devlin
Minchinhampton: Thomas, Reed, Buckland, Beard, Mills, Field, Cam Lowe, Charlie Lowe, R Kennedy, L Kennedy, Preddy
Subs: Russell, Tombs, Woodman, Churchill
C Martin Roofing Man of the Match – Nathan Hopkins (Tuffley Rovers Reserves)
