By Ben Edwards
Bridlington Town 1 v 0 Sheffield FC
It’s been the perfect start to Mike Thompson’s reign as Bridlington Town manager, who’s picked up maximum points in his side’s first two games, following a 1-0 victory over Sheffield FC at the Mounting Systems Stadium.
On the three points, the Bridlington gaffer said: “It wasn’t really pretty for either team, but it shows another side of us.”
He made just one change to the starting lineup, as Bolton Makwedze replaced the injured Benn Lewis in defence, and put in an excellent performance as the Seasiders kept a clean sheet.
The deadlock was broken after just seven minutes, as Anthony Odoh mis-judged the flight of Nathan Dyer’s ball over the top. Danny Earl got the wrong side of the visiting left-back, who fouled the Bridlington striker in the penalty area.
Earl’s strike partner Michael Coulson stepped up to take the penalty, which went in via a touch of fortune as it deflected off goalkeeper Oliver Riva’s foot.
Sheffield’s only real look-in during the first half came when Josh Ayres got on the end of a ball over the top, and took it round Sebastian Malkowski, but ran the ball out of play.
A couple of half chances came the way of the Seasiders around the half hour mark, as Earl spun his man and his effort deflected into the side netting for a corner, before Tom Allan then slammed the ball off target.
Nathan Dyer, who looked a threat throughout the first half, made a great run down the right flank and picked out Earl at the near post with a cross, but his effort went wide of the right post.
Sam Leverett replaced Ahmed Salam in a precautionary half time change, and looked to make an immediate impact, turning onto his right foot and seeing his shot from inside the penalty area spilled by Riva.
He then whipped in a cross from the right and found Allan’s head, but he glanced it wide.
The visitors won a free kick 25 yards from goal, which Joe West took, but it didn’t test Malkowski and went past the post.
Both sides struggled to create anything during the final half-an-hour, until the 89th minute. Coulson held the ball up well and played a pass in behind the Sheffield defence.
Running onto it was new signing and local lad Cam Connelly, who replaced Earl after 62 minutes. He got to the ball first, but the defender made a superb recovery tackle and put the ball behind for a corner.
