Butler & Guests' XIs 2023 - Day 2

As part of the Christmas content on Severn Sport, Butler has invited some special guests to pick their all-time XIs, once again.

Today is the second day and the guest is Fairford Town’s Director of Football and former Gloucester City and Cirencester Town striker, Jody Bevan.

If you missed yesterday’s post featuring Tim Harris’ all-time Xi – check it out here!

Now for Bevan’s teammates XI:

And here is what Bevan had to say about his choices:

Goalkeeper – Matt Bath (Gloucester City, Cirencester Town) – Played with some top GK’s but Bathy just edges it. Genuinely can’t remember him ever making a mistake.

Right Back – Mike Green (Cinderford Town) – Played with Greener when he was a youngster and he was head and shoulders above anybody else on the pitch. No surprise he played so long at Gloucester.

Left Back – Ellis Dunton (Cirencester Town & Fairford Town) – Too laid back for his own good. Should have played much higher than he ever did. Could play anywhere in defence and make it look effortless.

Central Defender – Lyndon Tomkins (Trowbridge, Cinderford Town, Cirencester Town & Gloucester City)- Got to get my mate it. From playing together for Gloucester City Under 18s we followed each other around throughout our careers. He was so hard to play against. I was always glad to have him on my side rather than against him.

Central Defender – Wayne Hatswell (Cinderford Town) – Had one season together at Cinderford and it was obvious he would go on to bigger and better things. Think he scored over 10 goals that season from headers from set pieces.

Central Midfielder – Sean Wharton (Weston-super-Mare) – My captain when I first signed for Weston having previously been a pro at Sunderland and Cardiff. What a player. Hard as nails, eye for goal, proper leader.

Central Midfielder – David Lee (Weston-super-Mare) – The best passer of a ball I ever saw in my career which was no surprise having spent most of his career at Chelsea.. He was coming towards the end of his career at Weston so was not the most mobile but his range of passing was unreal.

Right Wing – Stuart Slater (Weston-super-Mare) – I was almost star struck when Slates first came to Weston having played for West Ham and Celtic. A genuinely nice guy who was always there with a word of advice or support.

Left Wing – Adie Harris (Cinderford Town, Gloucester City) – Honestly this man is legendary. Adie would absolutely terrorize full backs. Saw so many look at him and underestimate him and then be thoroughly embarrassed.

Striker – Jimmy Cox (Weston-super-Mare) – Jimmy and I grew up together in the same street and we had one hell of a partnership on the pitch. Another who should have played much higher than he did. On his day easily the best striker I ever played with.

Striker – Lee Smith (Gloucester City, Cirencester Town, Fairford Town, Tredworth Tigers) – I had to include Smudge. Still banging in the goals at 40. His goals won us a league title at Ciren and kept me in a job at Fairford.

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Substitutes

Mike Kilgour (Weston-super-Mare) – Proper old school centre half. Best tan in football too
Tom Webb (Gloucester City) – Legend. Scored more goals in the 50 odd games I played for Gloucester than in the other 650!
Mike Fowler (Gloucester City) – Another player that I couldn’t believe was playing at the same level as myself. A classy central midfielder.
Chris Thompson (Gloucester City, Cirencester Town) – One of the most underated players to come out of the local area. Thommo could play anywhere and make it look easy. You often didn’t know how good he was until he was missing.
Scott Griffin (Cirencester Town, Gloucester City, Cinderford Town) – Started off together playing for Matson and Gloucester Primary Schools. Probably the strike partner I played the most games with in my career. He will claim he set most of my goals up and no doubt moan about only making the bench!

Come back tomorrow to see another Guest All-time XI and Butler gets involved with his first XI!