A blustery day greeted the many new faces who have joined the club to strengthen the squad for the start of the 2006/07 season, and following a string of strong pre-season friendly match performances, spirits were high in the Bradley Stoke Town dressing room.

Dave Stephens started his first competitive match as captain and began by winning the toss, electing to play with the strong wind advantage in the first half.

Immediately it was all Bradley Stoke, and it could only have been a matter of 5 minutes before the first goal went in. An accurate cross from Ben Osbourne was met by the head of Liam Dixon, who hit the bottom left corner…the keeper didn’t even move.

With Fishponds failing to get the ball into the Bradley Stoke half, the pressure mounted and following a succession of corners, Town scored again via the head of Dixon, this time courtesy of a delivery from Andy Gray.

The third goal was a similar story to the first one, only this time it was a long throw from Osbourne, flicked on by Dixon and with the keeper under pressure from Ashley Lloyd, he fumbled and let the ball roll into the open net behind him. That secured Dixon’s first half hat trick, on his debut.

The final goal of the half was scored by Andy Forshaw, following a nice bit of passing, switching the play over to Ben Osbourne who unselfishly laid it off for Forshaw to calmly finish, placing the ball into the bottom right hand corner of the goal.

4-0 at half time, but expecting a much harder battle in the second half against the wind and a more pumped up Fishponds, Bradley Stoke came out with the intention of playing the ball around to cancel out the wind, and that’s exactly what they did.

There were two more goals from Forshaw in the second half (one a cheeky header that looped over the despairing keeper) that ensured he achieved a debut hat trick. Liam Dixon also managed to add a fourth goal to his tally and claim the man-of-the-match, but the goal of the game came from the boot of Matt Dobbins. A team goal that saw virtually every player on the pitch getting a touch with some slick passing enabled Dobbins to burst through the defence and curl past the keeper.

The final score of 8-0 was by no means a score line which flattered Bradley Stoke Town – a well deserved win and great start to the season…long may it continue.

Match report courtesy of James Palmer.