Coronation United Football Club

Coronation United Reserves 0–7 Portishead Town Colts

Weston-super-Mare & District Football League – Division 4
Saturday 5th September 2026
Loxton Campus, Weston-super-Mare
Kick-off: 3:00pm

A New Season Begins

After eight and a half weeks of pre-season, Saturday finally marked the beginning of a new chapter for Coronation United Reserves as we welcomed newly formed Portishead Town Colts to Loxton Campus for the opening game of the season.

It has been an incredibly busy summer throughout Coronation United. Changes in management, restructuring behind the scenes, new additions to the coaching setup, a new approach to training and a summer full of pre-season friendlies have all helped lay the foundations for what we hope to build this season.

There was a mixture of old and new faces in the squad, with a manager familiar to some and new to others taking the reins of the Reserves.

On a warm afternoon in Weston-super-Mare, the message before kick-off was simple.

Play football.

We lined up in a 4-5-1, with an emphasis on keeping things simple, creating triangles, moving the ball, pressing together when we didn’t have possession and having the confidence to actually play.

And for the opening 25 minutes, that is exactly what we did.

A Competitive Opening

The opening stages were tentative from both sides.

Portishead arguably created the better opportunities, but Coronation were by no means simply hanging on. We broke forward on several occasions and created openings of our own, although unfortunately we weren’t able to test the goalkeeper as much as we would have liked.

Our wide players worked extremely hard, pushing forward when we had possession before dropping back to support defensively.

Several players were also being asked to operate outside of their usual positions, but the shape held and the game remained competitive.

Then came the first setback.

On 25 minutes, Liam Dow, who had been having an excellent game down the left alongside Jaden Long, was forced off through injury, with Shayon Downer replacing him.

Just two minutes later, Portishead found the breakthrough.

Coronation had actually been attacking moments earlier, putting together some good combinations before getting a shot away which was saved by the Portishead goalkeeper.

Their keeper reacted quickly and sent a long ball forward. The ball bounced awkwardly over our retreating defence and, with our goalkeeper unsure whether it would carry through to him, Portishead reacted quickest.

0–1.

It was frustrating because, after 27 competitive minutes, there had been very little between the sides.

Unfortunately, what followed changed the complexion of the game completely.

A Difficult End to the Half

Three goals arrived in relatively quick succession.

A corner into the box wasn’t dealt with and Portishead punished us.

A defensive mix-up then created another opportunity before an unfortunate own goal added to what had suddenly become a very difficult spell.

In a short period, a game which had been competitive for the opening 25 minutes had completely turned on its head.

Half-time: Coronation United Reserves 0–4 Portishead Town Colts.

At half-time, Dan Spicer made way for Harley.

The formation remained largely the same and the message was not to chase four goals immediately.

Get back to playing football.

Win the next tackle. Make the next pass. Create the next opportunity.

And, to the players’ credit, the response at the beginning of the second half was positive.

Inches From a Lifeline

Coronation pushed hard during the opening ten minutes of the second half.

On 55 minutes, another change was required at the back, with Jaydon Hare replacing Jaden Long.

Then, one minute later, came the moment which could have given us something to build on.

Departing player Harley, introduced at half-time and looking to make an impact, picked the ball up around 35 yards from goal and unleashed an absolute thunderous strike.

The goalkeeper was beaten.

Unfortunately, the crossbar wasn’t.

The ball crashed against the woodwork and stayed out.

Had that gone in, who knows what confidence it might have given the side?

But there was to be no fairytale comeback.

Around seven minutes later, Portishead found their fifth with a low finish into the bottom corner.

That goal forced further changes to personnel and shape as we looked to manage injuries, get minutes into players and find a combination that could regain some control of the game.

Portishead would eventually add another two goals, including their seventh late in the match, to complete a comprehensive opening-day victory.

Full-time: Coronation United Reserves 0–7 Portishead Town Colts.

Standout Performances

A 7–0 scoreline is never pleasant to look at, but it would be completely wrong to suggest there weren’t positives or individual performances worthy of recognition.

Zack Britton was superb.

Starting in central midfield, Zack worked relentlessly before later dropping into centre-back during the reshuffle. Regardless of where he was asked to play, his intensity didn’t change. He broke up play, competed for tackles, communicated and continued trying to drive the team forward.

Jack Groom also produced an outstanding performance.

Jack started the afternoon at right-back before circumstances forced him to put on the goalkeeper’s gloves following an injury to our keeper.

Despite being thrown into a completely different position, Jack stepped up brilliantly and even saved a penalty.

Ty Handley, returning after being away for several months, slotted into centre-back and produced an extremely strong performance.

Jaden Long also deserves recognition. Playing out of position at left-back, he worked hard and covered well. There was a moment where frustration understandably started to creep in, but after a conversation he reset himself and went straight back to giving everything he could for the team.

Man of the Match

🏆 Players’ Man of the Match: Zack Britton

🏆 Manager’s Man of the Match: Jack Groom

In reality, there was very little separating the two.

Both worked from the first whistle until the last, communicated constantly, put in big tackles, broke up play, made runs and continued trying to lift the players around them regardless of the scoreline.

They represented exactly the attitude we need going forward.

Manager’s Notes

Of course, this wasn’t how we wanted to start the season.

There are players within this squad who experienced difficult results last season, and when a scoreline begins moving away from you, those memories and doubts can understandably start creeping back in.

That’s where the challenge begins.

This is a project.

The aim isn’t simply to put eleven players on a pitch every Saturday. It’s to build the foundations of the Reserves team we want Coronation United to have and, importantly, help these players become the footballers I know they can be.

That won’t happen overnight.

There will be difficult afternoons. There will be mistakes. There will be games where things don’t click.

What matters is how we respond to them.

For 25 minutes today, we showed glimpses of exactly what we’re trying to create. We moved the ball, created triangles, broke forward, competed and looked like a football team.

Now the challenge is turning 25 minutes into 45.

Then 45 into 60.

Then 60 into 90.

We have a weekend without a league fixture next week before cup football and another league game follow, and September is going to be busy.

Training will be important. There is plenty to work on, plenty to improve and plenty of football still to be played.

Credit must also go to Portishead Town Colts. They were excellent opponents, played the game fairly from start to finish, battled across the pitch and deservedly walked away with the three points. We wish them all the best for the season ahead.

For us, one result does not define a season.

We dust ourselves off.

We learn.

We work.

And we go again.

Coronation United Reserves will be back. 💙🖤

UP THE CORRIE! ⚽🔥

Saturday 5th September 2026
WSM & District League - Div 3
Swiss Valley Rangers Reserves 3-2 Coronation Utd

10min 0-1 J.Wilcox goal, A.Sprague Assist
14 min J.Sprague red card
45 ht 0-1
60 min 1-1 SVR
63 mins 2-1 SVR
69 min 3-1 SVR
71 min 3-2 B.Pearce (Pen)

Today was a tough one. We was the better team we know that. We battled hard for 80 mins with 10 man and tired legs kicked in and injuries set us back. Few errors in second half and the lead we held on to slipped away. We pulled one back to make it 3-2 and we was dominating the last 10 mins playing more attacking trying our best to get the equaliser but it wasn’t enough and the lads put hell of a shift in, Worked their socks off. We will bounce back from this. Next week we put things right.

Goals:
J.Wilcox ⚽️
B.Pearce ⚽️

Assists:
A.Sprague 🅰️

Man of the Match:
S.Muirhead, phenomenal performance from Scott. Covered every blade of grass and was there to put the challenges in. Well done 👏

Dick of the day:
J.Sprague, unlucky today, done really well up until the foul which resulted in a red card.

We move on and focus on next weekend.

Squad Lists!⚽️

New Season, New look.

Here’s the squads for this weekend fixtures. Best of luck to both teams. Both looking strong. Go get them 3 points ⚽️

Some more contract extension and new player signings

We are delighted with these 4 putting pen to paper ✍️

Zack and Bailey, as we know, show some real class and passion. We are over the moon with their extensions.

Abdirizak and Aaron are quality additions to the club. We’ve seen glimpses of what they can do on the pitch. We look forward to seeing you both grow with the club for as long as possible ❤️💙⚽️

Training tonight

Old and new players welcome. Come join us and reach your potential. Drop us a msg if your interest in joining. First month free for new players

Coronation United Football Club

The 26/27 season is here. And here’s Matchday 1 for both teams

Firsts vs Swiss Valley Rangers Reserves (AWAY)

Reserves vs Portishead Town Colts

Best of luck to both teams ⚽️

September fixtures

Saturday 5th September
Firsts vs Swiss Valley Rangers Reserves (AWAY) - D3
Reserves vs Portishead Town Colts - D4

Saturday 12th September
Firsts vs St George Easton in Gordano A (AWAY) - D3

Saturday 19th September
Firsts vs Bruton Utd Junior - CC R1
Reserves vs Ilchester Reserves (AWAY) - CC R1

Saturday 26th September
Firsts vs West Wick Reserves (AWAY) - D3
Reserves vs Clevedon Utd Colts (AWAY) - D4

Final score

Coronation Utd 4-4 Sandbay (AWAY)

We played decent overall. At times we was phenomenal, dominating possession. A few errors gifted them goals. But we didn’t let our heads drop.

Goal scorers
Jake W ⚽️⚽️
Zack ⚽️
Bailey (pen) ⚽️

Well done lads, roll on the season start next week ⚽️❤️💙

4 contract extensions confirmed ⚽️

We’re delighted to confirm these 4 lads have extended there contracts and we look forward to seeing them on the pitch this season.

❤️💙

Saturday 29th August 2026

Firsts vs Sandbay (AWAY)
3pm kick off

Last game of pre season and the lads are raring to go. All the hard work in training and learning from all the errors over pre seasons feels like it’s finally paying off. This is gonna be a good game.

Pop down to WSM Fc 3G pitch and support the lads in action as we look to finish pre season strong