LONGWELL GREEN SPORTS 1 BRIDPORT 3

BRIDPORT soared into the Toolstation Western League Premier Division top 10 for the first time this season with a hard-earned win in Bristol.

Now up to ninth place in the table, Bridport couldn’t be in much better form ahead of their trip to undefeated league leaders Larkhall Athletic on Saturday.

For Bees’ manager Trevor Senior, three points at Longwell, who ended the game with 10 men, was the ideal start to what could be a tough month for his team.

He said: “We’ve got a really tough December and play the league leaders next so it was really important we got three points on Saturday.

“The sending off knocked their momentum but I thought we deserved it on the balance of play and we could have won by more.

“The win means we’ve done the double over Longwell this season and we are now seven games unbeaten in the league.

“It moves us up to ninth in the table and I think that’s the first time this season we’ve been in the top 10.”

Other than a bit of wayward finishing, Senior was content with Bridport’s performance as they followed up September’s 4-0 hammering of Sports with another triumph.

“They had the first good chance on 25 minutes when the referee played advantage after Shane Evans had committed a foul and Longwell ended up hitting the bar,” added Senior.

“Shane was booked when the play finally stopped but that seemed to wake us up and we could have had a couple of goals.

“A ball from Dan Wise to the far post reached Tom Richardson and his shot hit the outside of the post, then Darren Watts had a similar chance but his effort went into the side netting.

“We eventually went in front when Jamie Filkins crossed to Ryan Dovell and he controlled the ball before hitting a left-foot shot just inside the post.

“At half-time we felt that if we kept putting the ball in the right areas we would only end up causing them more problems.

“About 10 minutes into the second half we got a second. Dan Wise curled in a free-kick from the left and it missed everyone and went in off the far post.

“We had chances to kill the game off and two or three fell to Tom Richardson but he couldn’t make the most of them.

“Then out of nothing they pulled one back from a set-piece and, although we had to make a couple of important clearances after that, we weathered the storm well.

“They had a player sent off on 65 minutes for a foul on Darren Watts and it took Shane Evans to come out of defence to seal the win for us.

“He went on a run down the right and blocked a defender’s clearance, took the ball into the box and found the corner from a tight angle.”

Bees: S Filkins, J Filkins, Condliffe, Evans, Watts, Hayter (Staines 84), Luke, Wise, Richardson, Dovell, Morley (M Buckler 75). Sub not used: C Clarke