The Swans return home pointless after a commanding first half performance that should have put them out of sight at half time but the home side took advantage of some poor defending to sneak the win.

Slimbridge looked very lively out of the start, Ethan Dunbar latching on to a long through ball from the back but his delicate chip over home keeper Aaron Sainsbury fell just inches past the post.  Dunbar was causing the backline all sorts of trouble with his pace.

A mix up in the Swans defence saw Lewis Adams trip one of the Paulton strikers while trying to clear the ball resulting in a free kick just outside the box and a yellow card for Adams.  Fortunately for the visitors Neil Martin fired the free kick over the bar.

On 20 minutes the Swans took a deserved lead Ben Prictor sliding a pass forward down the left side line to Dunbar who fended off the attention of two defenders as he cut into the box to slot the ball into the bottom left corner.   A couple of minutes later Levi Francis finished off a great forward movement from the visitors but his effort sailed wide.

An equalizer came from the home side out of the blue five minutes before half time when David O’Hare found space to run down the right, his pass finding Kyle Tooze in space to slot past Adams from a tight angle.

The second half was more even with both sides playing some good attacking football looking for a second goal.  It was Paulton that got that next goal, Prictor clipping the heels of Edward Butcher just inside the corner of the box with the referee having no hesitation in awarding a penalty.  Tooze duly stepped up and blasted it straight down the middle past Adams.

Paulton increased their lead 5 minutes later when the Swans failed to clear a short corner Tooze fired against the bar with O’Hare first to the rebound heading into the net at the far post.

The lead was reduced moments later, Edji Mbunga’s knock down was collected by substitute Ben Hands who let fly from at least 35 yards beating Sainsbury and the ball bouncing into the net off the underside of the cross bar.

As Slimbridge continued to press for an equalizer, defender Nathan Dennis was introduced as a second striker with 5 minutes remaining and saw his header from Joe Shutt’s cross palmed away by Sainsbury.  And in injury time Dennis failed to get any power to another header that fell into the arms of Sainsbury.

 

This week Slimbridge entertain local rivals Evesham United on Tuesday evening at 7:45pm before another long trip to Hampshire on Saturday to face AFC Totton’

 

Slimbridge: Adams, Holmes, Prictor, Turner (Dennis 85), Geddes, Lawrence, Mbunga, Francis (Shutt 65), Dunbar, Sunley, Thomas (Hands 65)

Attendance 139