OFFWELL RANGERS RES 1, LEDBURY TOWN SELECT 3.

A MIX of present and past Ledbury players went on the road to Devon to play an exhibition match against Offwell Rangers Reserves.

The game started at a very steady pace with little action until Mark Davis swung a loose leg at an easy back pass to see the ball still rolling past him he managed to beat the striker for pace to rectify his mistake. The visitors then upped the tempo to breakthrough after 15 minutes when Scott Roberts played a defence-splitting pass through to Peter Boyle.

He finished calmly by flicking the ball over the advancing keepers reach. The game then opened up with constant end-to-end action as both teams came close. Offwell increased pressure on the Ledbury defence paid off when they squared the game up with a powerful 12-yard strike past Davis.

Ledbury then pressed for the remainder of the half with several chances going begging, until the visitors regained the lead just before half-time with fortune on Roberts side his cross from the right-wing nestled in the top corner.

The once-retired Peter Brown made a solid come back to the fold linking up really well with Gibbs down the left-hand side and causing constant problems with his left foot.

The game was pretty even for most of the second-half with both teams’ defending especially the Ledbury back four of Chris Powell, Gibbs, Ash Jones and Fred Whitehouse assisted with the lack of goals by the altered strike force of Jay Walker and Adam Sharpe’s incapability to find the back of the net.

The hosts went close to levelling the game in the 70th minute when Jones found himself marking no less than five attackers from Offwell’s speedy break.

However, experience paid off when Jones forced the striker to shoot early with the ball ending up in the hands of sub keeper Sam Dixon.

The best strike of the day came from Davis, now playing outfield.

He easily went past the Devon teams right-back to cut inside and rattle the bar with a 25-yard bullet that re-bounded away to safety.

Ledbury still hadn’t made the game safe until Sharpe’s pin- point corner beat all of the defence to find Jay Walker to strike and secure a rare away victory.