Barton Town OB 2 Bridlington Town 3

The return fixture to one of our closest rivalries, saw us travel to their place on the other side of Hull, well its on the other side of the Humber, which meant a £6 return journey just on the Humber bridge before we even started.

As has been mentioned here before,  Barton have several ex-Brid players amongst their ranks, today there was Ash Dexter, Danny Buttle, Anthony Bowser, Tom Lee (injured), Gareth Owen, Scott Philips & Dave Bramley and possibly one or two others.

There was a good contingency from Brid, probably a good 40-50 fans out of 124, to cheer the lads on. Barton were no push overs, them beating us twice this year testifies to that. Conditions and the pitch were good, a slight wind whilst a bit chilly.

Barton take the lead, probably with their first effective shot, when Bowsley shoots from just outside the side part of the penalty area, straight into the top far corner of the goal, giving Wilbur no chance.

Until that point we had had several chances and had most of the play, and after the goal was no different. Bennett played some excellent 1-2′s with Greening a couple of times before he shot at goal, it was saved by Bramley, and followed up by Hoggy to slot the ball home from a tight angle. We had lots of opportunities, but thanks to the defending of  Dexter and the keeping of Bramley, keeping us at bay. The second came from a free kick, which was given away easily by Dexter, it was floated into the box, flicked on by Dexter and bundled in by their number 4 (with Hoggy in close proximity), the third came from a corner and was well headed in by Hoggy.

On 93 Dexter gets their second, but I have to say the scoreline flatters them, we had huge swathes of territory and possession and could have won by more. Several players had a great game today, but my stand out player was Jenkinson, who has slotted in extremely well at centre half, and commanded the back line really well, and with Palms and Suddaby in great form, made it hard for Phillips and Owen to have any impact in the game.

Well done lads. if we win 10 of our last 12 games, the title is ours.

NCEL Prem		P	Pts	+/-
1	Bridlington	26	59	38
2	Retford	28	59	25
3	Staveley MW	27	56	21
4	Winterton	29	53	17
5	Scarborough	28	52	34
6	Tadcaster	27	52	20
7	Parkgate	26	51	27
8	Brighouse	27	51	23
9	Thackley	29	46	7

The result of the day though, came at Cambridge Utd’s Abbey Stadium, where my “other” non-league team Wealdstone, reached the semi finals of the FA Trophy by beating the Conference side. Wealdstone are a step 3 team, 2 higher than Brid, 2 lower than Cambridge, and in the pyramid, currently have 95 non-league teams above them – thats like Barnet or someone reaching the FA Cup semi’s.

Wealdstone completed the non-league double back in 1985,  and have suffered all sorts of mis-fortune from then till now, but a dedicated bunch of players and supporters have given them a settled home and a vastly improving team. Famous players include Stuart Pearce and Vinnie Jones.

Next round see them against either York, Luton or Newport County – some pretty high flying non-league clubs there – in a home and away encounter, then for the winners of the two games, WEMBLEY.

Brid Town 4 Hall Road Rangers 0

Since we drubbed Selby 2 weeks ago, we have embarked, sailed and sunk in this years FA Cup. We played Barton Old Boys, who have ex Brid Town defender Ash Dexter amongst their ranks (there may be more ex Town players but as I wasn’t there, I wasn’t interested.) The first game was away, we fell behind, lead 2-1 with goals from Ash Allanson and a pen from Craig Hogg – they equalised just after and it remained 2-2. Replay took place on Tuesday night at our place, winners to play Scarborough in the next round. We make a dreadful start, Ash Dexter forgetting his roots and opened the scoring for the visitors. Wayne Aziz, one of the bosses newcomers equalises. We go behind again after the break, but Ash Allanson equalises with a belter of a goal. Rob Northern raps the game up for them with a last minute penalty. 149 in for this.

The witchhunt against the manager is now in full flow. There is a faction amongst our 140 or so fans who want the new manager out. Some say it is too early to judge, some just feel he has to go. I wrote a piece up on the forum about people not liking change (which we are naturally going through) especially when you’ve experienced glory and you find yourself struggling under a new regime. As a small step 5 club, we will forever be “changing” be it players, fans, owners etc etc its just a fact of life.

You know bank holiday is upon us (and the end of summer) because it pissed it down for most of the game today. We made a couple of changes to Tuesdays team and were welcoming Hall Road who recently dumped us out of the league cup. From the start we looked more solid, better defending, and very competitive all over the park. Hall Road had several ex Town players amongst ther numbers, Thacker, Bramley, Suddaby and Chippendale, and struggled all game to deal with our play.

Moment of the season so far came in the first half when we were pressing and the ball came out of the box and Nathan Cooke smashed it home from around 35 yards, always rising straight into the top corner giving their keeper no chance. Well worth the entrance money to any game.

Josh Greening adds a second early into the second half followed by a sublime side foot effort from Ash Allanson from the edge of the box – from we me and the lad were it looked like he missed as we saw the ball hit the boards behind the goal, but the ball had “slipped through the net.” We finished the game late on when our sub Logan cooly slotted the ball home following good work down the left.

We did look good today, but there is still room for improvement. We could easily have beaten them by 8 or 9 but kept giving the ball away in advanced positions. On the whole though everyone bar Billy Heath would have enjoyed that today. Billy got a lot of unfair stick from the bus shelter, I think we forget what a great job he did for us in the past.

Away at Arnold on Monday – won’t be seeing me there i’m afraid. Keep it up fella’s.

Bridlington Town 4 Sculcoates Amateurs 0

Can someone please email dear old mother nature and tell that summer consists of sunshine, warmth and scantily clad women – not the drizzly, miserable wintry fayre we had today.

A very measly crowd of about 90 or so attended this one, where we playing our annual game against Scullies, this time for the Memorial Cup (kindly sponsored by Graham Hebden and family) -we are the current holders.

Some changes for Town after last weeks performance, probably to give some players a good run out before next weeks games (v Hull on Wednesday and Pickering in the league next Sat), especially as some 1st teamers have suspensions pending.

Scullies played well throughout and at times didn’t look to out of place alongside us, one or two of their players stood out – their young goalie in the second half was very good. We did have some opportunities to score a quite a few more, but were lacking that killer instinct in front of goal today – Palms could easily have had 4 or 5.

What was pleasing other than the result, was the fact my lad and me were able to update the Twitter part of the blog with the goals as they went in, and equally as pleasing was Gail’s chilli – not as hot as recent offerings, but pleasant all the same.

Good effort by the team today and its looking good for the weeks, months and season ahead. Roll on a nice big bumper crowd for Wednesday.