Teen Payne sets up a Wall in goal (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Teen Payne sets up a Wall in goal

4:30pm Thursday 22nd December 2005 in Football

PEWSEY Vale manager Dave Turner praised young debutant goalkeeper Richard Payne for his performance between the sticks as his side beat high-flying Old Woodstock Town on Saturday.

The 16-year-old made a string of fine saves, while Craig Wall continued his scoring form with the only goal on 23 minutes.

"You can't stop Craig scoring at the moment, but the most pleasing thing for me was the performance of Richard Payne," said Turner.

"Our usual goalkeeper, Stuart Thompson, was away and I could have brought in a goalkeeper on loan but we wanted to give Richard a go as he has been doing well in training week in, week out.

"He's not quite ready to play every week but we trusted him."

Pewsey Vale were made to work hard for this win, the first chance falling to Wall who was denied by a great save from Woodstock keeper Danny Clifford.

But Wall grabbed his goal later in the half as he ran onto Payne's long kick upfield, headed round a defender and slotted the ball past the keeper.

Woodstock lost player-manager Simon Lenigan for a straight red card in the second half after a foul on Pewsey defender Gary Smart.