Brid End Five Week Winless Run

Sunday, 9 October 2022 09:14

By Ben Edwards

Bridlington Town ended a barren spell in dramatic style, at the Hudgell Solicitor Stadium on Saturday.

An injury time Andy Norfolk winner saw Bridlington Town claim three points in a 1-0 win against ten-man Brighouse Town. Eddie Rogerson, who hasn’t featured since the side’s 1-0 against Grimsby Borough at the end of August, returned from injury to start the game.

The start of the game saw chances come few and far between, with the most noticeable opportunity coming as Zephaniah Thomas got in behind the Bridlington defence, but the ball was put behind for a corner before had a chance to pull the trigger. Before the resulting corner, there was an off the ball incident between Andy Norfolk and Corey Gregory, which saw Gregory receive a red card for elbowing the Bridlington number nine. This left the visitors restricted to 10 men for over 70 minutes.

A well worked free kick from Bridlington saw Norfolk find Ali Aydemir in space down the right, but his fired ball into the area hit captain Matty Plummer and went over. Shortly after, a quick Brighouse counter saw them whip the ball in from the right hand side, just missing the head of Thomas in the middle.

Bridlington manager Mike Thompson opted to make an early change 10 minutes before the break, with Matt Broadley replacing Danny Finch on the left wing. Just a minute later, a good chance fell the way of Aydemir who found himself one-on-one with Michael Roxburgh in the Brighouse goal, but the shot stopper did well to close down the angle and make the save.

Moments later, Norfolk did excellently to hold the ball up, he played into the substitute Broadley but his powerful strike from outside the penalty area sailed over the bar to take the two sides onto the break deadlocked.

Similar to the opening 20 minutes of the first half, the second 45 minutes saw chances limited for both teams. An opportunity did occur, however, when Aydemir was fouled and won a free kick, which was met by Plummer, though his looping header was easily claimed by Roxburgh.

The hosts came agonisingly close to opening the scoring through substitute Jake Martindale, who replaced Rogerson who is still getting back up to match fitness. The striker, who has found gametime limited recently, beat his man in the air from a corner but headed it onto the woodwork from close range. The rebound fell the way of Jack Yates, who had also come off the bench, but he fired over.

In a match that looked certain to end goalless, a winner fell the way of the home team in the 91st minute. Martindale played a brilliant through ball to Norfolk, who slotted the ball excellently into the bottom left corner to steal all three points.

The Seasiders will be looking to back up their first win since August 29th next Saturday, when they travel to Consett AFC for a 3pm kick off.

Star man: Andy Norfolk

Entertainment rating: 3 stars.