Tish win but Robins push them hard (From Western Telegraph)

Tish win but Robins push them hard

Milford United 1 St Ishmaels 2

Milford United gave a performance to be proud of on Saturday by pushing St Ishmaels all the way before finally going down to a 2-1 defeat.

Considering that the Robins had lost so many players during the close season and that Steve Kenyon, Andy Burgoyne and Andy Burgoyne apart, the rest of the team are still sixth formers at Milford School, there is much hope for the future at Marble Hall, providing they can keep most of the team together.

For a derby game, this was an extremely clean affair. No dirty tackles, no pushing and shoving and only the odd expletive was heard. In fact this game was a good advert for local football. It was fast, it was skilful and above all it was full of passion.

For the first ten minutes or so there was only one side in it and that was Tish. They had a few chances to score with Steve Parkes having the best opportunity but he shot over the bar when really speaking he should have put the ball away. Milford obviously took heart from this missed opportunity and suddenly they found their feet and got back into the game.

A good run from Nicky Woodrow and a neat pass to Martin Henton almost resulted in a goal but it was cleared off the line which was a big let off for the visitors.

The game started to open up for both teams and Tish had another good chance to score when a dangerous cross by John Roden was well saved by man of the match Andy Carridge.

However, Tish finally got the goal they deserved soon after when from a corner Adam Davies took posession, and with his back to the goal, quickly turned and lobbed Carridge from just outside the box. Minutes later and it could quite easily have been 2-0 when Tom Carrington almost scored against his former team mates but his shot flew just over the bar.

Milford pulled one back just before half-time when Owen Thomas took possession in the box and although he could have attempted a shot from such an acute angle, he steadied himself and passed it on to Woodrow, who scored with ease.

Shell-shocked by leaking in a goal at such a vital time, Tish came out after the break like men possessed and if it wasn't for the brilliance of Andy Carridge in goal for the Robins, the game could quite easily have turned into a rout.

Within minutes of the re-start he was in action when Paul Palmer hooked a volley from outside the box and he pulled off a remarkable diving save. Soon after and Davies shot with his left and Carridge again pulled off a blinder.

Milford too had their chances as Daniel Bailey was put through only to be called off-side.

However, the majority of the half belonged to Tish and further chances fell to Davies again, but Carridge got in the way of his effort, while John Roden shot just wide.

However, a goal finally did come and ironically it came about through a mistake by Carridge, his only one of the match, when following a good run down the right by Roden he came out when perhaps he could have stayed back a little and Roden delivered in a cross which Robbie Thomas hit first time to score.

He redeemed himself a few minutes later when Davies had only him to beat but he pulled off a blinding save to deny the ace goal scorer his second.

Disappointed Milford manager Steve Harding may have been, but he was certainly proud of the way his team played saying:

"We battled well, and if we had taken our chances then we would have done a lot better. A draw would have been a fair result. We are a young side and we will only get better as the season goes on, but I'm really proud of the way we played."