Page 3 - Cribbs FC v Bishops Cleeve 191021

Today’s Game

Firstly, Cribbs FC would like to extend a very warm welcome to the visiting
players, team management, supporters and officials of Bishop’s Cleeve,
together with the match officials for today’s Hellenic League Premier
Division match. We hope that you enjoy your visit to the Lawns.
Match Reports
A busy period and only one page to comment, so I will try to keep it concise.
The last home match saw us take on the bottom side Hallen and as
expected, despite their lowly position our local rivals gave us a good game.
We came flying out of the blocks but were thwarted by a great save from
the Hallen keeper, who was arguably their key player on the night. Hallen
then settled down to play some nice football and opened the scoring
through Bristol City loanee, Tommy Backwell, who swiveled sharply and
struck into the corner beyond Liam Kingston’s dive.
A Cribbs equaliser was forthcoming from some George Kellow magic on the
half an hour mark and just before half time Ross McErlain converted a
penalty to make it 2-1.
In the second half, Hallen continued to knock the ball about nicely and
scored an equaliser to make it Tutu. Cribbs drew on all their resolve and
substitute Nick Jones struck the winning goal with minutes to spare.
Last Tuesday evening saw us take a trip up the A38 to Thornbury (well, if
you aren’t Nels, he just follows his SatNav to Aust). A dominant
performance was not converted into goals until the last few minutes.
The goals in two-nil victory came from two of Friday’s heroes, Ross McErlain
and Nick Jones. Ross sneaking in a free kick from the edge of the box and
Nick capitalised on the Thornbury keeper coming up for a corner.
Saturday saw a trip to Wiltshire to take on a Westbury United side buoyant
after scoring 16 goals in just three matches. Cribbs remained on the front
foot for the entirety of the match and took an early lead through that man
Nick Jones after good work down the right from Steve Murray.
Despite dominating the shot count, the game was not put to bed until
Westbury suffered two dismissals. The second goal came when Ryan Cainey
provided a pinpoint cross for goal maestro Murray to notch a rare headed
goal (his 300th in Senior Football). Two further goals came from Dan Webb,
the first a delicately guided ball into the corner of the net and the second a
comprehensive finish from six yards.

This Evening’s Opponents
This is the first time that we have met Bishop’s Cleeve in the Hellenic
League, most of our previous matches have been against their reserve side
back in our Gloucestershire County League days.
Bishop’s Cleeve have made a very strong start to the season, currently
sitting one place and two points below us in the Hellenic League, having
played one more match.
Our last and possibly only direct competitive encounter with their First XI
was the 2018/2019 GFA Challenge Trophy Final. The match went the full
distance, finishing 2 all, with Cribbs getting the better of the 15 converted
penalties in the shootout.
As always, get behind the boys!!! UTC