It was a massive day for Elston United as a club, but the three points were deservedly taken home by Meden Vale Colts. After officially opening new changing rooms and playing the club’s first ever game in the village, Elston fought hard against a strong Meden Vale team but ultimately came up short.

In front of a bumper crowd of 165 – a mix of villagers, visitors from Meden Vale, local dignitaries and ‘groundhoppers’ – the two teams fought out a tight, and at times scrappy game, with all the goals coming in the last 15 minutes.

Meden Vale had territorial advantage for much of the first half and had two long-range strikes that went narrowly wide of the Elston goal. Even so, Elston carried a threat and a Will Veys shot went over the bar while Toby Craven’s header from Rui Thacker’s cross was well saved by the Meden Vale keeper.

The second half carried on in much the same vein, although Elston were controversially denied a goal in the 70th minute when Rui Thacker’s volley from a Xander Millar cross was deemed to be offside. Five minutes later that decision seemed doubly cruel when a swift move from Meden Vale found Liam Jepson, the visitors’ dangerous winger, in the Elston box and he calmly slotted the ball home.

Elston immediately attacked from the re-start and James Scott was unlucky not to score when his clever lob over the Meden Vale goalkeeper dropped agonisingly wide of the goal. Meden Vale then doubled their lead in the 80th minute when Elston failed to clear a corner and Meden Vale’s striker redirected a mis-hit shot past the despairing dive of Brad Musgrove.

Elston, boosted by the introduction of Barney Repper, Jake Leadbetter and Curtis French, continued to search for a comeback and their hard work was rewarded in the 89th minute when the referee decided that French had been tripped in the box. James Scott stepped up and sent the Meden Vale keeper the wrong way to halve the deficit, but a shot by Rui Thacker in the final seconds was brilliantly saved and so it was the Meden Vale players who, seconds later, celebrated the final whistle.

Elston United: Brad Musgrove, Archie Dillon (Barney Repper), Toby Craven, James Smith, Xander Millar, Niall Parsons (Louis Cross 5), Sam Lloyd (Jake Leadbetter 78), Harry Johnson (Curtis French 78), James Scott, Will Veys, Rui Thacker. Sub not used: Sam Adcock