Bridgwater negotiated a place in the preliminary round of the FA Cup on Saturday on a day where a whole raft of circumstances went against them on and off the field and all were delighted to return to Somerset and regroup writes Kerry Miller.

Brixham will have time to rue not taking advantage when, at one point for a brief period, the Robins had just seven outfield players, played 20 minutes with ten men and ten minutes with nine. In the end it was a tale of two penalties as last Tuesday’s hat-trick hero for Brixham, Cole Harford, blazed his second minute effort over the bar while Jake Llewellyn was never going to miss his just on the break.

Travel problems meant a 3.30pm kick-off and a disruption to the pre match schedule and it showed as Brixham attacked from the start and within a minute Josh Parry went down under a challenge from Tom Ellis and referee Matt Arthur awarded a penalty. It ended up roughly where Pontins used to be and the visitors escaped.

Brixham’s young and talented squad were up for the challenge and matched their opponents in the centre of the park and Callum Leech’s audacious 40 yard chip shot brought a save from the scrambling Jake Viney.

Harford then took advantage of a static defence to find his way unmolested into the box but Viney was again equal to it which was the signal for exchanges to become tense and the home side’s Mark Ashworth and Jordan Greenwood both went into the book around the half hour mark.

George King and Mike Duffy then found space around the edge of the area but the latter scuffed his shot as the game went from end to end. Reece Somers went close twice in two minutes before Greenwood almost got on the scoresheet when he stabbed an effort towards goal and keeper Connor Smith just clawed it away. From the corner Tom Ellis was fouled and Jake Llewellyn was clinical as usual with the spot-kick to give his side a lead at the end of an eventful 45 minutes.