BALTI SPORTS 2

BRIDPORT RESERVES 3

BRIDPORT Reserves battled back from two goals down to shock high-flying Balti 3-2 at Weymouth College, much to the delight of Bees’ manager Shaun Annetts.

It was Balti who took the game by the scruff of the neck from the outset on their home turf and found themselves 2-0 ahead inside the opening seven minutes.

Their first came from the penalty spot. Charlie Kenderdine converted after Danny Andrews was felled.

Ricky Lane netted the second to ensure his prolific campaign in the Dorset Premier League continued, and Balti appeared to be well in the box seat against a Bridport team blooding a number of youngsters.

But a neat move from the Bees led to the ball being teed up for Simon Gale, who smashed a shot home with his left foot to pull one back. Tom Bearwish then tapped into the net from close range to make it 2-2 at the interval.

Bearwish then hit the crossbar on two separate occasions as the Bees probed to find a winner, and the game became more heated as Tom Blair and Gary Bulman were both cautioned.

Youngster Jake Rowland was then introduced in place of Blair for the Bees and latched on to a ball from Bearwish to volley home the winner with virtually his first touch. That ensured a remarkable comeback was complete for the visitors, despite losing Bulman late on for a second booking.

“All of them were fantastic and I was thrilled,” said Bridport chief Annetts.

“After a terrible start, the guys showed good character to come back into the game against a good Balti side.

“At 2-0 down we were on the ropes but we built confidence and, as the half went on, we caused them a few problems and stopped them creating.”

And Balti manager Marco Nott had no real complaints about his side’s shock reverse.

“I think we took it for granted a little bit. We stepped off (at 2-0) and, to be fair to them, they are a young team and they got in our faces and did really well,” he added.

“To be honest, they deserved it. We had a massive penalty shout at 2-2 with 20 minutes to go and the ref bottled it a little bit, even they all said it was a penalty.

“But we didn’t deserve to get anything out the game really, we were pretty poor.”

  • Annetts’ men travel to Sherborne Town Reserves on Wednesday night. Elsewhere, Weymouth Reserves host South Cheriton United (both 7.45pm).

Balti: A Nott, Batchelor (Dean), Burton, Anderson, Pearce, Devaney, May (Jarvis), Kenderdine, Lock, Lane, Andrews

Bees: Park, Herbst, Pearson, Day, D Lock, Hyde (Davy), Blair (Rowland), S Gale (Williams), Gape, Bulman, Bearwish