Youth football

Nathan Lloyd went close three times in the early stages before Brad Simons burst through from half way to fire into the bottom corner to give Heath the lead.

The visitors continued to press forward and Lloyd was again denied by an inspired Ashton keeper.

Early in the second period Heath scored a second goal when Lloyd finally found the net with a fierce strike.

Conor Heal, who controlled the midfield, beat the offside trap to race through and fire home the third before Ashton got back into the game with a goal from Charlie Green.

Will Butters played a ball through for Ashton Coleman to run onto and score Heath's fourth with a cracking shot into the net.

Lloyd won a tackle from the edge of the box and slipped a superb ball through to Simons to wrap up the scoring with a low acute angled drive, with man-of-the-match Max Southway and Tim Davies defending well, and keeper Tom Ruff in fine form.

Heath go into Christmas full of cheer.

Stroud and District Youth League U12s Stonehouse Town 2 Thornbury Falcons 6 Thornbury Falcons maintained their unbeaten record by defeating Stonehouse Town at the weekend.

Falcons started well when Ben Fox hit an excellent long ball to James Macdonald who lifted the ball over the keeper for the first goal.

The hosts then had their best phase of the game; Henry Roebuck having to pull off an outstanding save to maintain the lead. Just before half-time Stonehouse deservedly equalised making the score 1-1.

Falcons stepped up a gear in the second half and started to play some attractive football. Andrew Weeks restored the visitors' lead with a neat finish, and he added another after Callum Higgins' fierce shot was parried by the goalkeeper. Falcons continued to dominate and Stuart Gibson calmly slotted home the fourth goal.

Jake Goode timed his run to perfection to score Thornbury's fifth before Stonehouse replied with a long-range shot. Macdonald completed the scoring in the final few minutes making the score 6-2 to Falcons.

Yate Utd U9s 3 St Nics U9s 1 YATE carried on where they finished off after a two week break due to bad weather. They were pushed all the way in both games by a good St Nics team.

In the first game Yate went behind from a well-worked goal from Jacob Owers.

Both teams had chances in the first half before Matthew Gerrard equalised when the ball came back off the St Nics post and the keeper couldn't quite hold on to the ball.

The defenders for both teams had an extremely good game under pressure for long periods. Sam Burney had an impressive game for Yate picking up Man of the Match.

The second game was just as entertaining, with chances falling to both teams' forwards.

Connor Harrison scored a wonderful volleyed goal for Yate 10 minutes into the first half to put Yate 2-1 up on aggregate.

In the second half Charlie Ross had to be alert and at his best to keep St Nics from scoring. Five minutes from the end man-of-the-match James Cooper scored a well-taken goal after a good build up involving several Yate players to put the game beyond doubt.

RUGBY Thornbury Broncos U9s Thornbury made the short journey to Clifton RFC on Sunday playing two games against a good competitive side.

The first game was a hard-fought affair with both teams having good possession in the first half.

This resulted in some very good rugby being played and with Broncos managing to turn some very good passages of play into two tries, they turned around 2-0 up.

The second half was played in the same vein with both sides not giving an inch. Broncos were on the back foot for a while, conceding two quick tries drawing the scores level with three minutes to go.

By digging deep with the seconds ticking down Thornbury managed a very well worked move from deep in their half resulting in Thornbury scoring the only try of the second half, winning a very creditable 3-2.

The last game kicked off as temperatures seemed to be dropping rapidly but with Thornbury turning up the pressure to warm the hearts of the away fans they put Clifton under great pressure from the start running in five tries to Clifton's two.

The boys never seem to disappoint maintaining a high standard each week which is great credit to them and the coaching staff.

Clifton U12s v Thornbury Broncos U12s The team's steady improvement in recent matches continued with two excellent battling performances against a strong home team.

Both matches were draws. The first was 5-5 with Matt Jacobs going over for the Broncos. The quality of the performance deserved better, particularly against some very harsh refereeing.

The second match continued the theme of the first with both teams going at it hammer and tongs.

A few late defensive slips gave Clifton a slightly fortunate half-time lead of 10-0, but the Broncos came out fighting and Archie Stenning and Matt Holliday deservedly pulled them back to 10-10.

Coach Wood had the beaming red glow of a happy Santa afterwards and further proof that it is Christmas was shown in the fact that the team have their first home match of the season on Sunday against Keynsham.