The pitch was uneven and hard and sloped from west to east. The sky was patchy and the wind was a strong westerly.

The first half kicked off and Wessex Wanderers who choose to play with the gusting wind behind them, immediately started to get deep penetration into Bradley Stoke's half. When the balls were played long then flew straight through to Dave Stephens in Goal but when they passed the ball on the deck they were creating opportunities and corners, exploiting some gaps directly in front of the back four. The wind was obviously giving them a large advantage and they pushed more players forward over time. Saying that, the defence was sound enough to only offer Wessex one or two shots during the whole half. Towards the end of the half a drop kick from Stephens fell close to Paul Shelley, who used his body to turn his marker and let the ball bounce through the Wessex defensive line. After running with the ball for 20 yards, he hit a shot into the strong wind, from 10 yards outside the box - the ball died in the air perfectly dropping over the keepers head and into the goal.

The second half typically saw the wind blow itself out a bit and change direction to hinder neither team. This created a more balanced flow of football from both teams but most importantly Bradley Stoke had the edge and was pushing forward more often. In the middle of the half some good work from Ross Cheeseman and Paul Shelley getting behind the Wanderers fullbacks helped tee up a great opportunity for Craig Potter, which he finished with force. Into the final throws of the game, tired and 2 goals up saw the Bradley Stoke's forward drive fail slightly giving Wessex a good spell of about 10-15 minutes, but they were unable to turn this into a consolation goal thanks to some last ditch defending, a lick of paint and some strong goal keeping (one noticeable Stephens save was from point blank with his legs, whilst moving in the wrong direction).

Bradley Stoke were the deserved winners and progress onto the next round of the Primary cup for fireworks on November 5th.

Match report courtesy of Roger Smith.