Taunton Town are still searching for their first win of the season after an evenly matched draw with Sholing at the Cygnet Health Care Stadium on Saturday (August 24).
An Archie Moulden strike just after the half hour cancelled out an early lead for the visitors and with no further additions to the scoreline, the shares were spoiled.
The result leaves Taunton on two points from four games ahead of their fixture against Frome on Monday (August 26).
The Peacocks went into this fixture on the back of two away 1-0 defeats at Poole Town and then Hungerford Town. So far this season Sholing have won two from their previous three games.
Manager Richard Luffman made two changes to the side that lost in Berkshire, with Owen Brain and Alfie Moulden coming in for Charlie Dashfield and David Duru.
It was the visitors who started better, forcing several early corners and getting to the byline on a couple of occasions without finding a player in the box.
On eight minutes, that changed however and Sholing took the lead.
The visitors launched a quick break with Jake Hesketh finding Bradley Targett on the right and he crossed for striker Daniel Mason to flick a header into the corner of the net.
The goal seemed to wake up the Peacocks though as they took control of the match following the goal.
Just three minutes after the goal, the returning Owen Brain crossed for Archie Ferris but his stretching attempt clattered off the crossbar.
On 15 minutes, Brain showed his creativity again as he showed excellent footwork to go past a couple players but his effort was easily saved by the Sholing goalkeeper.
Captain Tom Smith also had stinging drive on 26 minutes which was tipped over the bar.
On 34 minutes though Taunton broke through with Archie Moulden hitting one from the edge of the area and it hit the underside of the crossbar before going in.
Taunton remained in control until the half time break and would probably have rather kept playing as they had the momentum.
In the second half, Taunton struggled to get going and Sholing took control of the ball without either side really testing either goalkeeper.
Both new signings announced an hour before kick off – Jayden Nielsen and Aysa Cornick – came on to make their debuts.
The brightest moment for Taunton was substitute David Duru running on to a through ball but was unable to force his way past the defender. At the other end, Adam Parkes made a smart save to stop Sholing from taking all three points.
“We were the better team first half – I was really disappointed to give a soft goal away. We had a few problems down our left hand side, they got overloads a couple times and scored.
“I thought for the rest of the half we were the better side, Archie’s hit the crossbar, we’ve had a couple of half moments and then a wonder goal from Alfie Moulden got us level and for the rest of the half we were the team asking the questions.
“They were the better team second half but I think a draw was a fair result.”
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