Captain Marvell Jonny May

Ilminster Town travelled to mid table Minehead on Saturday and enjoyed an excellent away win with Captain Marvell Jonny May scoring twice including the goal of the season.

Wearing their red away kit, Ilminster set up differently with a back five when defending to counteract the wide pitch as Minehead like to take advantage of the width, and it was the home side who started at a fast pace zipping the ball around and switching play.

Ilminster were defending well and slowly began to push forward and Jonny May found himself in space when Matt Brown and Joe Simmonds worked an opening and May finished well with a left foot strike into the corner in the 10th Minute.

By now May was in a confident mood he picked up a loose ball on 22 minutes just inside his own half and striding forward like Steve Gerrard in his prime he ran through the heart of the Minehead defence leaving four players in his wake and  produced a great finish by scooping the ball over the advancing keeper.

2-0 at half time and it started badly with Minehead pulling a goal back almost immediately with a header.

It was very much backs to the wall defending now and worse was to follow when Jon Manley took an elbow to the face and was shown a straight red card for retaliation.

 Manger Jason Manley then went into a 4-4-1 formation  with Joe Simmonds up front on his own and what followed was the best disciplined defensive performance shown under Manley.

Simmonds worked really hard holding the ball up and closing down and the two banks of four stood firm and held out for a tremendous win.

It was a real team effort will everyone giving their all, marshalled well by Josh Parsons but it was Captain fantastic Jonny May who was the star man with both goals, including his brilliant solo effort, not bad for a centre half.

Team Matt Bisgrove, Darren Brown, Josh Parsons,  Jon Manley, Jonny May (Capt), Aaron Sweet, Sam Rowswell, Matt Brown,  Paul Nichols , Jack Male, Joe Simmonds,

Subs used

Taylor Jefferson for Aaron Sweet