A youthful Weston side progressed to the next round of the Somerset Premier Cup with a 3-1 win against Shepton Mallet.
Jack Holmes’ shot from a low Elis Watts corner inside the opening 60 seconds was blocked by a Shepton foot on the line, before Watts had a shot from just inside the box pushed away by Tom Easterbrook after Ben Griffith had cut the ball back to him.
The hosts were to open the scoring when Holmes recieved the ball just inside the Shepton half and found Alfie Moulden out on the right. The winger cut inside onto his dangerous left foot 20 yards out and hit an unstoppable shot into the far corner over the outstretched hand of Easterbrook for 1-0.
Captain for the evening Lloyd Humphries had an 18-yard attempt held by Easterbrook, before the returning Bailey Kempster’s strike from an angle outside the box was just wide of the far post.
A second goal was to follow from academy product Brandon Bak, who latched onto a Humphries pass down the right channel. Being direct and running at his marker, the 16-year-old beat his man to get into a one-on-one situation before slotting past Easterbrook from 12 yards for his first senior goal.
Shepton had the final effort of the game when a cross dropped to an unmarked Joe Morgan six yards out, but he headed onto the top of Luke Purnell’s goal.
Moulden had a great chance to get his second of the night four minutes into the second half when Watts’ pull-back to Griffith saw the striker’s shot blocked, the ball falling to Alfie at the back post as he sidefooted wide of the target.
Weston were to get a third though when a neat move involving Watts, Kempster and substitute Jago Thompson-Roberts worked the ball into Bak with his back to goal. Laying the ball off to strike partner Griffith first-time, the youngster curled an excellent 20-yard effort into the far corner for his fourth of the campaign.
Shepton were to pull a goal back when a penalty was awarded following a tussle in the penalty area from a visiting corner. Nick Hewlett stepped up, and smashed his penalty past Purnell despite the keeper going the right way.
During the second half, Purnell was called into action to keep out several Shepton attempts while a young Weston side looked to stamp their authority up the other end with efforts that failed to trouble Easterbrook.
The young Seagulls comfortably saw out the game however and will be pleased to have made cup progression in a competition that Weston have tasted success in four times out of the last 12 years.
FT: Weston 3-1 Shepton Mallet (Moulden 5, Bak 20, Griffith 54 – Hewlett pen 57)
Weston XI: Purnell, Murray (Pegler 87), Kempster, Humphries (C) (Thompson-Roberts HT), Jones, Tunnicliff (Maspero 74), Moulden, Holmes, Bak, Griffith, Watts. Unused substitutes: Grubb, Harris.
MOTM: Elis Watts.