By Ben Edwards
Seasiders hit the road after back-to-back home games.
Bridlington Town will kick start the month of February away from home, travelling to Cleethorpes Town on Saturday 3rd.
The Bridlington Town faithful will be hoping to return home with their first three points of 2024. After beginning the year with a 4-2 defeat against Liversedge FC, the Seasiders had consecutive home matches due to the trip to Carlton Town being postponed.
Both of those games at Queensgate, against Stockton Town and more recently Grantham Town, ended in 2-2 draws.
In the Grantham game, Bridlington Town showed great character to come from behind on two occasions, including netting a 94th minute equaliser through Lewis Dennison.
Will Sutton made his first start on his return to the club, starting at left-back before being pushed forward into left-wing.
Benn Lewis also returned from injury as a 65th minute substitute, to further bolster Adrian Costello’s options. Furthermore, Ali Aydemir is expected to return against Cleethorpes, having missed the Grantham game through work commitments.
Bridlington supporters will have reason to expect to see a couple of goals on their travels, as the Seasiders have netted two goals in each of their last four fixtures.
During those four games, central defender Jack Bulless has scored on three occasions, including two goals in the three games this year to earn him the Player of the Month award for January.
Switching the focus to Saturday’s hosts, Cleethorpes will be playing their third of four consecutive home games.
On the topic of spotting patterns, both of their previous matches at home ended in 3-1 defeats, against Dunston and Consett AFC, respectively. The Owls found themselves 3-0 behind in both games before pulling a goal back.
Cleethorpes will complete the quartet of games at The Linden Club when they host North Ferriby on Wednesday 7th February.
Both Bridlington Town and Cleethorpes Town have earned 29 points so far this campaign, though the Owls’ +3 goal difference is nine superior to the Seasiders, and as such Cleethorpes occupy 12th position with Bridlington in 13th.
Cleethorpes have won all five games against Bridlington Town since the Seasiders were promoted to the Northern Premier League. They didn’t face each other at Linden Club during 2023, though they did play twice at the Hudgell Solicitor Stadium.
Earlier in the season, a poorly struck 89th minute free kick from former Bridlington Town player Will Annan made it 3-2 to Cleethorpes back in September. In March, Cleethorpes also picked up a 3-0 victory over the Seasiders.
In 2022, Bridlington Town travelled to Cleethorpes twice, narrowly losing 1-0 on both occasions. They will certainly be looking to end that streak and pick up, as a minimum, one point on Saturday, and with their recent goalscoring form there’s no reason why they can’t.
