First Team vs Battle Town

Recap

Reigate Priory hosted high-flying Battle Town in an entertaining fixture at Park Lane on Saturday. After a slow start to the season, the visitors had been on a strong run that has seen them reach third place in the Mid-Sussex Premier League. However, it was Priory that started the better and after just ten minutes Callum Johnson’s shot from the edge of the box snuck into the corner of the net for one nil. Priory’s lead was fairly short-lived and the lively Paul Wetherby notched his seventh league goal of the season cutting back on to his left foot and finishing past Callum Walmsley on his home debut, to level the scores.

Weatherby grabbed a second early in the second half and should have completed his hat-trick after seventy minutes but blazed wide when well-placed. With fifteen minutes to go fans’ favourite James Bolton came off the bench and within minutes broke free of the Battle Town defence and coolly slotted past the goalkeeper to equalise. Priory may have been awarded a penalty late on when Shane O’Keeffe was blocked off by a defender in the penalty box but the referee instead awarded an indirect freekick which was set to O’Keeffe who sliced wide.

The game ended all square, 2-2. Manager Dale Wyatt had this to say, “It was a tough fixture today, but another one where yet again we will rue missed chances. On the balance of play, I think we just about edged it. The two goals they scored were almost gifted, not to take away from Weatherby though because he still had a bit to do and took his chances well. Unfortunately, that’s something we didn’t do well enough with two sitters missed and a penalty right at the end not awarded. We’ve now fallen behind target for the month and have given ourselves a lot to do in the pursuit of 4th place.”