Page 24 - Brislington FC v Bitton 190823

Another empha c win!

Match Report
Brislington 6 Hengrove Athle c 1
Toolsta on Western League Division One
th
Tuesday 15 August 2023
Brislington welcomed neighbours Hengrove Athle c to the Poplar Stadium for their fi h
game of the 23/24 Toolsta on Western League campaign.

A er a bright start to the season, drawing with championship hopefuls Bi on winning
against Keynsham and Warminster scoring 12 and conceding 2 in the process, Hengrove
had slipped to two heavy defeats against AEK Boco and Wells City. The night would not
bring a change in fortune to Jamie Hillman’s young side!!

Brislington Manager Lee Perks was missing Harry Tobin and Lewis Ewins but other than
that had a full squad to chose from. The strength of the squad was fully displayed by the
strength of the Foxes bench which contained Jordan’s, Ricke s and Williams, Josh Egan,
Ben Withey and Oaklan Buck.

The game started at a phrene c pace but the first blood came early for the home side.
George Jones was brought down on the edge of the edge of the visitors box, offering
returning skipper Asa White the opportunity of a direct free kick. Whites low shot below
the jumping wall was parried away by the feet of the Hengrove Keeper, only to be poked
into the roof of the net from 10 yards by Dean Griffiths who was first to react. With 5
minutes on the clock Brislington were ahead and another big score line looked ominous.
The home side hi ng seven against Odd Down in their last ou ng.
However this wasn’t to be the case, in the early stages and the energe c Hengrove side
were working hard to get back into the game. Relentlessly pressing the home side who
weren’t looking very composed despite having the greater possession. The Foxes lack of
composure and the fact that they were taking too many touches when simpler op ons
were available, kept the game scrappy and too many niggly fouls along with poor decision
making and execu on from the Foxes spoiled it as a spectacle. On 30 minutes there was a
significant moment when Grove midfielder Connor Kingdom rashly lunged two footed at
Joel Smith, receiving a red card for his moment of madness.

This put significant pressure on the away team but it didn’t dampen their enthusiasm,
although it did cause significant frustra on from both players and bench which boiled over
five minutes later when their ‘over protes ng’ saw them lose another player this me to a
Sin Bin. As if their task wasn’t hard enough already, the away side then lost another player
to a sin bin three minutes later leaving them with just seven ou ield players on the pitch!

The home side duly capitalised the discrepancy in numbers by adding a second just before
half me. Asa white ge ng his first goal of the campaign by turning in Doddimeads cross
performing a ‘karate style’ high kick with the outside of his boot at the near post in the
43rd minute.

Half Time: Brislington 2 -0 Hengrove