FOLLOWING THE SALTMEN

Kingys. 12 August 2025

After successive wins over Westfields and Thornbury, the Saltmen came into this Tuesday night fixture on a bit of a run. I don’t think anyone expected a repeat of the five goal win over Westfields and it was clear from minute one that Fairford had not come to Kingys just to make up the numbers. They started strongly and had the lion’s share of possession in the early stages. When Spa did have the ball the visitors closed them down quickly and stopped the home side making any meaningful progress into the Fairford half. Town came close to opening the scoring when, after 8 minutes, Alfie Presley struck the outside of the Droitwich post. Ten minutes later Joah Hall’s fierce drive from distance was only fractionally too high to trouble Dom Hill, brought in as a replacement for the injured Dom Rogerson, in the Spa goal.

By now the men in black and red had begun to work their way into the game. Reiss Taylor-Randle and James Lemon were both, in rapid succession, thwarted by last minute blocks from the Town defence.

On the half hour mark the deadlock was broken. A great ball over the Fairford left back was collected by Jack Brighton on the charge down the right wing. JBs great work saw the ball played into the danger zone. It found Corey Rudd 22 yards out. No stranger to the spectacular finish, he let fly a worldy that curled away from Town keeper Connor Johns and dipped inside the far post. I hope and expect Corey has many years football ahead of him but I doubt he will many better shots on goal than this one which completed a real good Spa move. The lead could, and probably should, have been doubled after 37 minutes when a great Josh Hurdman cross was met by Alex Dugmore, the club’s leading scorer. It was the sort of chance Duggers would head home in his sleep but to the surprise of Spa fans, his effort was off target.

The lead would, however, be doubled a few minutes later when Charlie Tilley’s clever finish back across goal found the old onion bag and Spa had a second.

With the Saltmen now looking increasingly dangerous, it took a top drawer save from Johns to deny them a third. Then with the game about to enter first half stoppage time the visitors number 6, Adam Corcoran, said something to the officials which they didn’t like and he was given a spell in the sin bin.

The second half started with Spa sitting deeper, clearly intent on defending their lead. Both sides created chances and on 59 minutes, James Lemon could not quite get to a teasing Josh Hurdman cross. Moments later Tom Chamberlain seized upon a loose ball in the Droitwich box and fired past Hill to make it 2-1. The last half hour saw Fairford chasing an equaliser. Spa hung in and while both sides created chances one of which fell to the returning Perry Moss, brought on as a second half replacement, had a great chance to seal the game. A fully fit, match practised Moss would have tucked the ball away with ease but he is understandably still a little ring rusty and scuffed his attempt at goal.

Spa survived a lot of pressure in the last half hour but hunkered down and with all of the back for having strong games they ultimately prevailed.

I could have awarded the coveted FTS Man of the Match award to any one of a number of players but this time it goes to Ben Tilbury for the latest in a long line of assured performances at Centre back.

Home again on Saturday.

See you there.

Cheers

FTS