Page 12 - Brislington FC v Longwell Green Sporgts 180323

Match Report

BRISLINGTON PUMP UP THE VOLUME IN TITLE RACE
16 March 2023|Match Reports
A pleasant spring a ernoon, saw Toolsta on Western League Division 1 leaders Brislington
preparing to travel to Fryth Way to face second placed Nailsea & Tickenham in a crunch
match which would likely play a huge part in the 22/23 season’s final standings.
The hosts were one of only three teams to have beaten the Foxes this season, winning 0-3
in what was both teams second game of the new campaign on the 8th of August, and the
Swags second ever in the Toolsta on Western League. Brislington’s first game having been
a 2-1 home win over the other tle chasing hopefuls Wells. It would be fair to say that no
one would have expected Nailsea & Tickenham to be right in the thick of conten on at
these final stages, and showing such impressive stats! However that result was likely to be
no surprise for the Swags whose promo on season had seen them unbeaten, with 25 wins
from 30 matches, they definitely had an element of surprise for the Foxes.
For the visitors, there was of course the lure of revenge, along with the possibility of
distancing themselves further from their hosts. Brislington being four points clear with two
games in hand and both teams each having incredibly scored 105 league goals at the start
of play!
Lee perks was without Ash McGrane, and one Saturdays goalscorers James Dunn, but
otherwise had a full squad to choose from, with Danny Doddimead fit again a er tweaking
a hamstring, the Reverend Dean Griffiths returning from his ‘wedding’ du es and Captain,
Asa White a er missing two games with an ankle injury.
The beau ful sun of the a ernoon was replaced by a light rain, which turned into hard rain
by kick off. The swags warmed up with high intensity and looked as if they were going to
come out of the blocks like raging bulls, however it was the visitors who started brighter.
Maybe the swags had used up too much nervous energy in the warm up!
The slick surface meant that the player’s touches had to be on point, and Brislington were
a acking with more quality and intensity. The hosts were making more unforced errors,
and any forays forward were quickly snubbed out by the Foxes back line. As you would
expect with the wet condi ons some of the challenges were ‘meaty’ and this would be the
defining factor of the first half and ul mately the game.

Mclennan and Buck were a acking with purpose, George Jones fresh from scoring his ‘half
dozen’ against Por shead was pu ng in the hard yards as always, with Scadding providing
extra impetus with his direct runs. Me er and Ricke s providing the guile. In the 10th
minute it was one of the line breaks from Scadding that got him beyond the back line and
as he cut back in toward the goal he was fouled by the backtracking defender who risked
tackling from behind taking his man before the ball, and in the process conceding a
penalty.

Asa white stepped up to confidently fire the ball home disregarding the home sides
a empts to put him off by roughing up the penalty spot, 0-1, first blood to Brislington.
This se led the away side who con nued to frustrate Nailsea with their lively start, and
more confident passing and 10 minutes later the away side went further ahead when a
Brislington free kick from the le wasn’t cleared, and a long passage of fran c play around
the penalty box ensued, the ball eventually dropping to Lewis Dunn who took one touch
to get the ball out of his feet out of his feet and drilled to ball superbly into the roof of the
net from 25 yards. 0-2.
Then came the defining moment, on 25 minutes Jordan Whi aker made the mistake that
the warm up had suggested might be an issue looming for the home team, clearly fired up
with the loss of two early goals and with Brislington domina ng the ball, he lunged into a