CLEVEDON Town must enjoy playing Bridgwater United; for several seasons they have held the upper hand and this victory for the Seasiders secured them the double against their ambitious opponents.

The game had plenty of commitment, plenty of effort but too many fouls and little creativity.

Clevedon profited from some loose defending in the first half and took their chances. United had more chances but could not convert most of them.

United set up at the back with four centre backs and with left back Jake Llewellyn in a roving midfield role and right back Dave Thorne on the bench.

This unbalanced arrangement didn’t work out well. Clevedon enjoyed the space along each flank and caused quite a lot of problems in the first half, along with those that were self-inflicted.

It was noticeable that once Thorne came on in the second half and once Jake Llewellyn reverted to left back, the defence looked altogether more solid.

Clevedon had the first chance to score but Archie Ferris’s header was too weak to cause Jake Viney any concern. Jack Taylor’s cross from the left wing found Mike Duffy beyond the far post and from a tight angle his volley struck the side netting.

A very uncharacteristic error from Tom Llewellyn, passing across his own penalty area, presented the ball to Clevedon. The ball was slipped forward to the unmarked Cameron Salmon. He had loads of time, but his feeble shot allowed Viney to pick the ball up.

The game became bitty with lots of ill-judged tackles and the inevitable yellow cards from a referee who wasn’t scared to brandish them.

Out of this shapeless period, United found some attacking drive and had two good chances in two minutes around the 25-minute mark.

United looked dangerous when the ball was delivered from set pieces and Sam Hedges met a perfect Jake Llewellyn free kick with a header that should have gone in. Luca Smith had other ideas and made an agile save by plunging to his left.

Soon after that, Sam Crumb collected a powerful header from the generally excellent Jacob Spence and crashed a volley towards the top right. Another athletic Smith save.

Just as United were beginning to dominate they gifted Clevedon a  goal on 30 minutes. A miscued, attempted clearance slithered to a Clevedon forward who dribbled around Viney and placed the ball in the open net.

Another Hedges header was saved by Smith before United drew level in the 33rd minute. Under pressure in their own box two Clevedon defenders got in a tizzy and the loose ball was swept in at close range by the ever-predatory Taylor. His 23rd of the season.

Three minutes from half time Clevedon scored again. A left-wing cross picked out Alex Camm about fifteen yards from goal. His well struck volley flew just inside the right-hand post.

United looked more purposeful when the game resumed after half time. Crumb’s shot from a good position was blocked and a Spence header from a corner kick went over.

Then came an incident that made you think that your luck was out. Spence was left wishing that we had had some rain in the last week because his on target header bounced down on to the firm surface and, somehow, lifted over the bar.

Clevedon had pretty much given up on the idea of attacking and were happy enough to absorb pressure. Any goalmouth action was at their end. Taylor arrived at the far post to connect with Duffy’s deep cross, but his side footed volley ran across the goal.

United were still very much in the hunt for points but then, after 68 minutes, George King was sin binned. Possibly not sure as to whether they should stick or twist, this somewhat restricted United’s attacking output for a while, and they never really got going again.

So apart from several more yellow cards and plenty of time wasting the game drifted off into the windy night and the points drifted up the M5 to North Somerset.