Match Report:
Bridgwater traveled to Hallen on a beautiful and sunny October day, to play last season’s Division One champions, Portishead Town. A number of changes marked Richard Pears’ second game in charge; with midweek signings Dave Rowe and Lewis Smith both unavailable, former Bristol City and Exeter City defender Craig Woodman was signed up as the last minute and made his debut. Craig Duff and Preston Hopwood also made returns to the starting eleven.
Portishead came out the gates strong with a number of surging attacks that penetrated deep into the Bridgwater half, thoroughly dominating the first 20 minutes of the game. Despite this, it was the Robins who found the back of the net first in the 23rd minute; Craig Duff rising the highest to meet Brad Pdupa’s cross and nodding home what would’ve been his first goal in a Bridgwater United shirt, however the referee adjudged Duff to have fouled the defender whilst going up and disallowed the goal.
Bridgwater wouldn’t have to wait long until the ball was in the back of the net again, as on the 28th minute Jack Taylor reacted quickest to a sloppy save from the Portishead ‘keeper George Shanks Boon to net his 5th goal of the league season. Portishead didn’t take the goal lying down however, with a number of strikes in the closing half of the game turned away by Liam Kingston. Bridgwater would head into the break 1-0 up for the second game in a row.
A double substitution was needed at half time, with injuries to both Taylor and Duff, with Luke Newman and Freddie Haden taking their places. Portishead started the second half the brightest, forcing Liam Kingston into two good stops within 5 minutes of the second half. Disaster struck in the 51st minute as Preston Hopwood was shown a straight red for what was deemed a dangerous challenge by the referee seeing Bridgwater reduced to 10 men.
Despite the man advantage a combination up front of Freddie Haden and Liam Winter was proving successful, with a number of chances created. Noah Brown seeing a shot go marginally over the bar from distance on 56 minutes, and on 64 minutes Freddie Haden created space deep in the Portishead half with some excellent footwork and then found the underlapping run of Michael Duffy, the wingback found himself one-on-one with the keeper but unfortunately he couldn’t keep his shot down and it soared over the bar.
Portishead began to take advantage of their extra man and began a barrage of dangerous attacks towards the Bridgwater goal, Liam Kingston again providing some excellent saves to keep Bridgwater in the game. Unfortunately, the inevitable happened on the 73rd minute as the Bridgwater defence couldn’t react quick enough to a Liam Kingston save and the rebound was bundled in by Callum Eastwood, despite Portishead seemingly fouling Michael Duffy in the box whilst chasing the rebound. Duffy couldn’t continue and was replaced by Fin Koppa. Spurred on by their equaliser, Portishead would score once again through Ethan Feltham just two minutes later, but it was ruled out for offside.
Both sides went in search of a winner, and what ensued was an incredibly cagey finish to what had already been an intense battle. Portishead charged forward on the 78th minute and a lovely ball was played into the box by Kyle Egan, on a plate for Ethan Feltham, however Liam Kingston pulled and incredible stop from a few yards out to deny him. A tired Bridgwater defence battled hard to deny Portishead a winner, however further disaster struck as in the 92nd minute Portishead were awarded a penalty following a last ditch challenge from Jamie Price, which was dispatched by Kyle Egan, which would prove to be the deciding goal as the game ended 2-1.
Despite the result, Bridgwater United can be happy with the performance. Valuable lessons learned against a very good opposition side, we now move onto the Somerset Premier cup on Tuesday night away to Welton Rovers.
Bridgwater United: 1. Kingston, 2. Woodman (Farkins 84), 3. Pfupa, 4. Armstrong ©, 6. Price, 7. Duff (Newman 45), 8. Brown, 9. Taylor (Haden 45), 10. Winter, 14. Duffy (Koppa 74), 16. Hopwood (Red Card 51)
Unsed Subs: Reece Ferguson-Obamwonyi
Portishead Town : 22. Shanks-Boon, 2. Honey (Dunn 51), 3. O’Keefe, 4.Eastwood, 5. Hurst, 6. Lawrence, 7. Bament, 8. Osmond ©, 9. Feltham, 10. Egan, 15. Fowler (Harper 58)
Unused Subs: Griffiths, Mountford, Coates
Referee – Jordan Lee
Assistant 1 – Adrian Hudson
Assistant 2 – Callum Blackhouse
