On 13 minutes, Mike Ford and Ben McLean combined well to set up Mbunga, who drew a save from Paulton Keeper Aaron Sainsbury. 

With 17 minutes on the clock, Slimbridge had their third penalty appeal when Mbunga was brought down as he shaped to shoot, and this time, the Referee pointed to the spot. However, Mbunga’s penalty was straight at Sainsbury and he made an easy save.

The miss was to prove very costly for the Swans, as Paulton then scored three quick goals in a ten minute spell to put them in control of the game. Firstly, Kyle Anderson converted a chance on 20 minutes, before two quick strikes from Leighton Thomas put the visitors three goals to the good. 

The Swans regrouped at Half time, and started the second period as they had done the first – and it only took four minutes for them to get on the scoresheet – McLean and Thomas combined well to set up Mbunga, who drilled the ball past Sainsbury to give Slimbridge a flicker of hope. 

After Thomas missed out on his hat trick after his header was cleared off the Slimbridge goalline by Ford, with 72 minutes on the clock, another foul on Mbunga in the Paulton box resulted in Slimbridge’s second penalty of the afternoon. This time, Will Hawes stepped up and converted to bring the deficit back to a single goal. 

With six minutes remaining, the scores were level, with a contentious equaliser from the home side. Paulton kicked the ball out of play to allow one of their players to be substituted, and as the ball was thrown back toward the Paulton goal by Jamie Martin, Hawes nipped in to equalise. 

Speaking after the game, Swans Manager Tom Speers praised the resilience of his side – ‘It was very frustrating after the start we had made to the game to concede as we did – we did everything that we wanted to do in the first 25 minutes, we were playing in behind their centre backs, get at them, play in their half up the hill and really get in their faces. The only thing we didn’t do was score. 

To go in three-nil down was massively frustrating, but the turnaround in the second half was great. We got ourselves back in and we were the only team in the game in the second half.’

The result moves the Swans up to tenth in the Southern League Division One South, with two further home games to come this week. On Wednesday, Sholing are the visitors to Thornhill Park (7.45pm), and then on Saturday Bristol Manor Farm make the short trip up the M5 (3.00pm)

Team: Adams, Spark, Novakovic (Hawes 68), Ford, Dennis, Lawrence, Yeo, Ogbeifun, Mbunga (Ahmed 80), McLean, Thomas (Martin 80)

Goalscorers: Mbunga 49, Hawes 72 (Pen), 84

Supporters Man Of The Match: Mike Ford