DESPITE travelling with only the bare 11 players to Stockwood Green in Bristol last Saturday, second-placed Watchet ran out comfortable winners in the end by 3 goals to nil against their struggling opponents in the first division of the Uhlsport Somerset County League.

On a deceptively tricky surface, cohesive football was never going to be easy, but the visitors showed the greater desire to gain another positive result with three quality finishes.

The Red & Blacks made early inroads with Ed Townsend blazing over the top and Riley Willis shooting straight at the keeper. Both youngsters had already played 90 minutes in the morning, but also put in a commendable afternoon shift.

Watchet took the lead when a move up their left flank involving Alfie Cox and Townsend led to the ball falling conveniently into the path of top scorer Billy Jones who underlined his confidence this season with a sweet strike into the far top corner. Townsend broke free into the area again only to pull his left foot shot wide of the far post.

The home side forced a series of corners and free kicks as Watchet lost their rhythm, but stand-in keeper Brandon Walsh dealt competently apart from a couple of diving blocks in goalmouth scrambles.The goal Watchet needed to settle any nerves came early in the second half when Cox gained possession just inside his own half to sprint clear into a massive gap in the Stockwood defence before placing his shot neatly wide of the advancing keeper.

There was over half an hour remaining when both sides went down to 10 men as a rash challenge on Aerron Clausen led to a home player being shown a red card while the Watchet man had to retire through his injury with no subs to replace him.

The visitors wrapped things up soon afterwards when skipper for the day Charley Clausen leapt to meet a driven corner from Willis to direct a perfectly-placed header back across the keeper into the opposite corner.

Stockwood sent a couple of reasonable openings wastefully off-target and had strong appeals for a penalty ignored before Walsh made his only real save of the half by plunging to turn the ball around for a corner. Watchet squandered late chances to make the scoreline more emphatic with Cox and Townsend both missing after seemingly doing the hard work, with Cox shooting wide after cutting inside his marker and Townsend seeing his effort blocked after rounding the keeper.

WATCHET: Brandon Walsh, Aerron Clausen, Ali Harrison, Jay Darrell, Lewis Rogers, Kieran Bailey, Charley Clausen, Eddie Townsend, Riley Willis, Billy Jones, Alfie Cox. .Watchet's A & P Farmer man of the match was Charley Clausen