SHIPSTON showed that they will be a difficult team to beat when the Cotswold League’s ‘B’ Team competition got under way.

They caught a strong CCS team completely unawares with three early goals from Jacob Fairbourne (two) and Jake Faulkner, before Matthew Davis was able to pull one back.

They went on to defeat Tredington 3-0, with exactly the same combination of scorers.

Temple Guiting suffered a 2-0 setback at the hands of Shipston, Fairbourne and Will Baxter doing the damage.

Against Ilmington, Faulkner got the early goal before their opponents settled and Baxter finished the match off.

CCS recovered slowly in their next game, yet could not make use of the early power play.

It took a period of intense pressure to force a penalty shot, from which Davis made no mistake. After that it was service as normal, Tredington losing out 3-0. Max Carter opened the scoring with a well-taken goal, then Jamie Malin made a fluent first time reverse-stick touch to deflect the ball home.

The goal of the night followed when Jamie Short passed across to Daniel Gee on the left wing, whose pass to Malin was fired home.

Ilmington also suffered a 3-0 defeat by the seniors, with Davis finishing off a fine period of interpassing.

Joshua Angus kept Ilmington in the game, but could not resist shots from Davis and Malin. Temple Guiting and Ilmington fought out a 1-1 draw.

Josephine Mutsaars put Guiting ahead and appeared to have won the match.

However, Tom Lewis kept seeking the rebound and found success in the final seconds.

The one score again came in the final seconds through Alistair McCallum.

In the final match of the night, Ilmington’s Angus again kept a clean sheet while Ollie Gibb netted twice at the other end for a 2-0 win.