A windy but dry day greeted the travelling Bradley Stoke convoy at Old Bristolians in Ashley Down for a game that the Orange and Black players had to win. This fixture earlier in the season saw two points dropped and a broken foot for striker Skipp, so revenge was on the cards.

The usual preparation ensued as Bradley Stoke started the match with the wind behind then on a very flat pitch – suitable to both side’s styles of football. However, with early exchanges looking like the match was going to be another tight affair, Bradley Stoke, courtesy of some long balls from keeper James Palmer were able to strike first. A drop kick beat the last defender and Skipp was able to reach it before the Portville keeper to enable the supporting Dixon to head home.

Within minutes, Bradley Stoke were two goals ahead courtesy of a cross come shot from Ashley Lloyd that looped over the keeper and dipped in at the far post. Did he really mean it!!??

But Portville were made of strong stuff and came back at Stoke creating a lot of chances, but only once did they legally get a decent chance. A turn on the edge of the Stoke box and an attempted shot was heading towards Palmer, but a deflection took it into the patch of the other Warriors forward who was able to tap into an open net. Very unfortunate, but did this mean we were going to have another tough game on our hands?

A Potter free kick inside the Stoke half through to Llloyd settled things down before half-time. Lloyd calmly brought the ball down and slotted it home past the Portville keeper.

A change at half-time saw Skipp drop into midfield to win more in the centre of the park and allowed Forshaw to take to the field. And it didn’t take him long to get on the scoresheet. A freekick from Andy Gray found Forshaw in the box and there was no way he was going to miss from there.

The rest of the half didn’t see any more goals, but was far from uneventful:

Some lovely skill from Lloyd carving the Portville team apart coupled with his two goals earned him the man-of-the-match.

Several goal scoring opportunities from the Portville forwards created by hand balls.

And, the best sending off we have seen. The Portville player flew into a challenge with Forshaw at about a foot off the ground with studs showing and completely took him out. However, he got away without any sort of booking because his team mate was so insistent that he played the ball that he picked up the ball, stood right in front of the referee and slammed it into his face, knocking him over and cutting his nose open!...not the sort of behaviour that anybody wants to see.

After all that, Bradley Stoke return home triumphant with a new record of 7 games won in a row. Congratulations boys, lets keep this run going!

Match report courtesy of James Palmer.