A muddy dark and dismal day, all around!

The game kicked off after a minute silence for the passing of George Best, one of the best players the game has ever seen. Both teams seemed eager to make an early impression on the game, but both sides lacked any venom.

In the same way as most of the other teams in this division play, the style of Shaftbury Crusade was one of the long ball over the top to see if their forwards could brake away in a foot race verses Bradley Stoke defence.  As the first half progressed, Crusade were looking more and more promising as Bradley Stoke’s midfield slowly drifted away from the game. However, Bradley Stoke were still seeming far more inventive with brakes and crosses and corners from all sides which inevitably finished in a poor shot in front of goal. Most glaring of these misses was Mustapha Jabang’s miss of an empty net from 6 yards out as the keeper was stranded on the near post and Mark Palmer skying the ball over the cross bar from 2 yards out after the ball ran through everyone’s legs before him.
As Shaftbury upped the opportunities at the end of the half Phil Harwood made a spectacular save to his lower left turning the ball wide for a corner. Then eventually Shaftbury scored after a ricocheted clearance was lifted into the corner on the spin by Crusades forward Valero. As far as the opportunities fell, Stoke could have been 7-2 up at half time if all chances were converted but they found themselves in a position of trailing 1-0.

Second half began and the cold rain fell, Bradley Stoke's shape further deteriorated from the end of the first half, the defence and midfield all began playing for themselves with little team unity. This led to a number of breakaways for Crusade from the half way line that Bradley Stoke were always chasing to catch up with.
Harwood made a number of good saves from these opportunities. But eventually Crusade got their second from a very good controlled penetrating run and smooth finish from Howe in the 55th minute. About 5 minutes later a miss hit corner kick from Paul Shelley flew in at the near post to catch the keeper napping - as the keeper span to catch the ball he only managed to take the ball and himself over the goal line, for what should be called as a complete fluke from a poor delivery.

Towards the end of the second half Howe scored again - his skill and pace turning the defence inside out, as he had done all day, to finish calmly.  As a counter to Crusades third goal, Bradley Stoke pushed hard to get back into the game, Adam Morris came on and shape improved but it was too little too late to change the result.  Bradley Stoke again had their share of opportunities with the best chance falling to James Palmer with a powerful shot from just outside the box being clawed out of the top corner.  Eventually, Bradley Stoke did win a conciliation penalty that Craig Potter converted with a blast straight down the middle.

If Stoke could have converted any one of the opportunities from the first have they would have at least got a well-deserved point. As it stands Shaftbury deserved to win as they worked hard and did not squander their chances.

Match report courtesy of Roger Smith.