20th October 2007

Bridgwater Sports 3-1 Locomotives

Team: Rawle, Caddy, R. Smith, Sealey, Prowse, Jones, Fursland, Cocks, Tucker, McGann, P. Organ

Subs: Dodden, Wood, Bennett

Scorers: Jones (3) Fursland (7) McGann (77)

Manager Jason Bale kept with the same formation as the previous week and changes saw Matt Caddy come back in at left back, Forwards Jones & Fursland on the wing and brought Paul Organ back in to be partnered by McGann up front. Emphasis was on tightening up at the back and finishing teams off by taking our chances and thatis exactly what we got!

Locomotives game plan seemed to be hitting early hopeful balls up to Matt Francis and feeeding off scraps but it was Sports who took first blood when a Free Kick from Smith found 'fry' in acres of space and with the Loco keeper dashing off his line it gave Fry the opportunity of knocking it over him and into an empty net after just 4 minutes - a perfect start.

The perfect start got better within 3 minutes when Fuzzy battled hard to win the ball on the edge of the box and then cooly finished neatly giving the keeper no chance. This was a goal that Fuzzy had deserved after weeks of hard graft with no reward and you could see the releif when the ball hit the net! 2-0 with 7 minutes gone!

For the next 15 minutes Sports were by far the better team but with no additional goals Locomotives were always in with a shout and slowly this is what happened as their front two combined well and Sports keeper Rawle made two outstanding saves to keep the score 2-0 as we went into half time.

With no changes at half time Sports tried hard to put Locomotives on the back foot but again various Sports players went missing which gave Locomotives the momentum and is was only a matter of time before they scored and after an hour that is what happened. A low shot from across the area went in to make it 2-1 and give Locomotives renewed belief and was it a case of Deja Vu for Sports?

Bale made two changes bringing Simon Dodden (just back from his Russian nightmare) on for the hard working Matt Caddy and young Josh Bennett came on to replace Jason Jones who again had given everything he had.

Thankfully Sports started to play a bit more and after yet another late challenge from Loco a deep free kick from Fuzzy was met at the back post by Craig McGann when others were thinking the ball was heading out and it squeezed in to give Sports their two goal advantage again.

That was Craig's last touch as he then taken off to be replaced by Steve Wood to shore up the midfield and with no further goals - there was 4 bookings in a space of one minute for Locomotives - the game ended 3-1 and Sports could get back to winning ways again!

STAR MAN: A tough call as no one played poorly but went to Carl Tucker for his tireless work in Midfield

DONKEY: This goes to Josh Bennett  - Manager Bale said hello to the Captain's one year old son (also called Josh) but spoke to him as you would say hello to a 1 year old plus waving & older Josh who was warming up thought I was talking to him & if that wasn't enough he then questioned in the changes room why the manager needed to put gel on his hair!!! Back in the Colts next week I think Bennett!