GMK News report from Tiverton v Taunton for a 0-3 Boxing Day Special

In 2025, GMK news intend to extend its coverage of local football matches to the South West. Today, we reported from a Boxing Day interesting clash between Tiverton and Taunton. Taunton looked favourites to win this match, 13th in the table to Tiverton’s 18th place and a game in hand. If Taunton won today it would put them closer to a high potential promotion spot in the league.

Above- Fans Boxing Day walk to Tiverton’s Moorcroft Stadium - pass Santa on the way

Above- a packed Away end, full of expectant Taunton supporters

Above- Taunton in claret and blue. Tiverton in yellow and black.

The match opened with a bit of a scrappy start, as both sides tried to open play and calm nerves. Taunton right from the start looked the stronger side with plenty of attacking play compared to early disoriented and scrappy defensive and attacking play from Tiverton. Taunton following the toss, were playing against their own fans and were quickly rewarded with having most of the early play with an opening goal in the ninth min. In the 18th min, Tiverton’s no.7 went down following a hard tackle which delayed play and gave both sides time to reflect on how best to move the first half towards. Cries of yellows and with a drummer in the home end tried to lift the spirits of a struggling Tiverton side. In the 21st min, Tiverton got promisingly into the Taunton goal mouth but a weak shot on goal followed and expectancy of an equaliser petered out despite another weak Tiverton shot on goal in the 23rd min. In the 24th, another break followed with this time Taunton’s no.20 player going down with a temporary injury. In the 27th min, Tiverton’s best shot of the first half so far came but was saved by a dive from Taunton’s goalkeeper as Tiverton sought ascendency. In the 29th, another shot on goal led to a corner followed by another as Taunton’s goalie was forced to work hard and show his excellent saving skills. In the 31st a third Tiverton corner was touched over the cross bar by Taunton’s keeper leading to a fourth corner and subsequent mouth scramble which went unrewarded yet again for Tiverton. In the final ten min’s Tiverton kept up the pressure as Taunton tried to hold onto the lead without anymore attacking play. In the 39th min, a Tiverton header hit the left hand Taunton goal post as pre end of half equaliser looked increasingly possible. To their credit Taunton’s defensive play was looking as good as their intermittent less frequent attacking play. Despite the step up in Tiverton’s first half play , Taunton were able to hold onto their lead and had given Tiverton plenty to think about as they moved closer to walking off to the pitch into the dressing room . Tiverton were left to contemplate how they could could finally get an equaliser and hopefully go on to win the match. The two mins of awarded extra time had not given Tiverton any extra help or advantage. In fact quite the opposite in the second min of extra time, Taunton scored to make it two nil!

In the 46th min Taunton opened the second half with an early attack on Tiverton’s goal which led to a threatening corner for them. This seemed to be Taunton’s strategy for the rest of the match. More attacking play from Taunton in the second half stopped Tiverton from getting anymore of the long attacking spell they had shown in the first half. The successful f time team talk by the Taunton manager seemed to be working as Tiverton’s only counter strategy was to start warming up two substitutes and put them on in the 57th min. With the larger number of Taunton away and more vocal fans now switched to the other end, Taunton’s supporters more noise off the pitch was continuing to motivate and add to the success of their players winning on the pitch. By the 64th min, Tiverton started to get a bit more play into the Taunton half but no more shots on goal until they too substituted. In the 66th min, a Tiverton close shot on goal was again saved by Taunton’s goalkeeper who had a significant impact on the destiny of the match. With fine Taunton save after save, Taunton were able to snatch a third in the final quarter of match and obtain a significant 3-0 away win.