Page 18 - Ashton & Backwell FC v Brislington 150422

Match Report

ASHTON & BACKWELL UTD 2 [Benington-
Mannings 14m; Ford 44m] BUCKLAND
ATHLETIC FC 2 [Bush 25m; Johansen 96m];
On a dry but cloudy afternoon, for the Stags, still battling to beat the drop,
two words summed up both this game and the whole season, what if.
The examination of the trials and tribulations of the whole season can
wait, yet in the context of this match and the fight for survival they can’t.
It was a scrappy game against a physical and limited mid-table team, yet
what if debutante Solari, whose delightful cross-field ball to split the
defence and find another new starter, Bennington-Mannings, who coolly
took the ball and went round Collings for the opener, had not been forced
to leave the field on the half hour with a nasty foot injury? What if Bishop
had not let Bush past five minutes before that, probably his only error of
the game, into the box to square the score? And what if Bishop’s great
header from a corner had hit the net not the bar in the last ten minutes?
Or what if the Stags had been able to take advantage of Bridger’s ten
minutes in the sin-bin for comments made over a disputed penalty? What
if we could witness brilliant play every week like when the Stags took the
ball from their box, Cummings supplying the final pass for Ford to cut in
from the right and drill home from an acute angle on half time for Stags
second? And, finally, what if the home defence could have hung on for 30
seconds more, rather than let Johansen in to score from an Athletic throw-
in at the death?
This was definitely a match for taking those valuable three points, though
Athletic were not without opportunities beyond long range shots, first half,
a loose ball wide on the left produced a stinging Stockton shot for
Coombes to parry away and Webber nearly succeeded in lobbing from
distance over an ill-placed Coombes’s head. In the second Hedges cleared
off the line from Bush at the restart, while Coombes saved from Johansen,
but that was about it. Stags with Hartley stressing the defence linking with
Price might have scored twice, his ball bobbling along the goal line but no-
one quite able to put a toe on the ball, then his shot in the 65th minute not
quite powerful enough to beat Collings.
There are four games left and the Stags sit five points behind Street and
with a -13 worse goal difference. Their destiny is out of their own hands,
so after a league cup interlude midweek, a win at Millbrook on Saturday is
looking increasingly vital.
MAN OF THE MATCH CHARLIE SAUNDERS
Team:
COOMBES, ANTHONY, HEDGES, CUMMINGS, BISHOP, CHARLIE
SAUNDERS, FORD, PRICE (sub WHITE 89m)
BENNINGTON-MANNINGS (sub SADY 77m), SOLARI (sub HARTLEY 31m),
SOLLARS