Page 30 - Brislington FC v Bristol Telephones 251123

Another Week, Another Deluge

Dry at the start of play there was no ques on of calling the game off, but literally the referee’s whistle
to start the game seemed to summon the rain with it, and it boy did it rain! The pitch at the end of
90 minutes resembling a ska ng rink as players struggled to keep their feet.
Brislington were heading to Springfield on a run of Seven straight victories a er a much needed 10
day break, but sadly as so o en happens the Foxes were unable to get going, while the home side
looked mo vated and hungry.
it didn’t take Heath long to open the scoring, three minutes in fact. Whooley finishing from close
range. A corner from the Heath right wasn’t cleared, and the foxes were slow to react, Dorringtons
ini al save from close range spilled to Whooley who fired in the follow up giving the keeper no
chance. 3’ Cadbury Heath 1 Brislington 0
Unfortunately this didn’t wake the foxes from their slumber, and the performance con nued to be
laboured, mistakes, poor touches, wrong op ons and slips at vital mes kept hindering the visitors
when going forward, while the hosts were domina ng the midfield capitalising on the defensive
apathy and an extra body in the middle of the park.
This was to manifest itself into a second goal for the Heath, on 15 minutes when the unchallenged
Sco rifled in to the roof of the net from 25 yards. Cadbury Heath 2 Brislington 0, and well deserved!!
This did bring a reac on from the Foxes who started to a ack with a li le more vigour, par cularly
down the le hand side with McClennan and Williams linking well. 22 minutes in, Dodimead looked
to have brought the visitors back into the game with a neat le foot finish but he was adjudged to
have been offside. The second part of the half was all Brislington but they just couldn’t find the finish
that they needed. Dean Griffiths had a header go close, from a corner but other than that promising
moves saw shots go wide, over, or saved, un l the 43rd minute. The spell of pressure finally paid off
a er a succession of corners, Griffiths eventually forcing the ball over the line with a header from
close range.
Two minutes later the foxes should have been level when another ball whipped across the face of
goal should have been turned in by Griffiths who was arriving at speed, his effort somehow heading
over from close range.

Half Time Cadbury Heath 2 Brislington 1

The Visitors made two changes at half me, Barwood coming on at the back and Buck up front
replacing Dodimead and Fillingham.
With the rain ge ng steadily harder and the pitch deteriora ng the second half resembled the first,
with Heath looking mo vated and hungry and the foxes misfiring. Dorrington was called into ac on
from Haynes making a flying save to his le as the Heath man’s 25 yard effort looked goal bound.
Then on 58 minutes came the decisive moment in par cular for me as a spectator. A ball fired across
the box was clearly handled by Heath veteran striker Huxley who controlled the ball with all five
digits dropping it dead in front of him before slamming home from close range. Clearly unhappy the
Foxes players were expec ng a free kick, but that was not forthcoming. The appeals fell on deaf ears
and to add insult to injury Egan was sin binned for dissent. Interes ngly I was surprised to hear that
if you say ‘wow that’s unbelievable’ with your head in your hands a referee is now seemingly obliged
to treat this as dissent and sin bin the player. As is apparently asking a linesman to talk to a referee
a er a player is poleaxed with a head injury as Griffiths found out 4 minutes later. With Williams
laying dazed on the ground and with no free kick, given, Griffiths was ordered to leave the pitch
leaving the Foxes with nine men.