Three Bridges 0-4 Phoenix Sports

Saturday 19th October

Three Bridges 0-4 Phoenix Sports

Phoenix continued their great league form with a 5th win in a row to jump up into the play-off places.

Danny Young with two goals and Kenny Aileru and Harry Harding with the others.

Match Report by Alf Blackler from Three Bridges

Bridges remained without a home win in the league this season as they went down to a Phoenix Sports side who ran the majority of the game from start to finish and it would be fair to say had the game wrapped up by half-time.

Phoenix started the brighter team, dominating possession and attacking from the first minute. After a penalty shout was turned down in the first 5 minutes and Harry Harding went close with a header, it was defender Danny Young who put the away side ahead in the 12th minute. A corner came in from the right-hand side and this was met at the back post with a powerful header that hit the underside of the crossbar and went over the line.

Bridges had very little of the game at this point and Phoenix doubled their lead in the 21st minute when the home sides defence fell asleep. A looping cross came in from the left which wasn’t dealt with properly, and Kehinde Aileru found himself in space in the 6 yard box and his scrappy finish hit the bottom right hand corner of the goal.

The home side had a brief flurry of chances on the half hour mark, with several corners being won in a row and John Lansdale putting a header just over. Duah-Kessie then put a chance just wide from a clever free-kick routine for the away side and Lee Hall was also booked for Bridges in the 40th minute.

The home defence was again found wanting just before half-time; a long ball was played over the top with no one picking up the runner down the left, the ball was nodded back to Harry Harding who was unmarked on the penalty spot, who placed his shot down the middle of the goal and the ball went under young Tom Baxter in goal to give Phoenix a 3-0 lead going into the break.

Baxter was deputising for the injured Kieron Thorp and in all fairness to the 18 year-old ‘keeper, other than the unfortunate mistake for the third goal, he handled himself well under pressure with very little help from the outfield players in front of him.

With the game all but done, the second-half was a quiet affair however Bridges performance did improve somewhat. MOM Curtis Gayler continued to put himself about to try and make something happen with the ball and his 25 yard shot was the closest that anyone came during the second 45 minutes. Price-Placid also had a tame left-footed shot but the attacking intent was an improvement from the first-half.

It was though Phoenix who had the final key moment of the game with around 10 minutes remaining. Lee Hall received his second yellow card of the game for a tackle on the edge of the Bridges box and from the resulting free-kick Danny Young met the ball with his head at the back post once again to score his second goal of the game.

Phoenix Sports took the 3 points back up the M25 and for their rewards now have a place in the play-offs.