BRIDPORT v TOTTON & ELING

CUP football returns to St Mary’s Field this weekend and Bees’ boss Trevor Senior is eager for his side to hit the ground running from the off and lose their tag of slow starters.

Bridport entertain Totton & Eling in the first qualifying round of the FA Vase on Saturday (3pm), less than a month since they were beaten on home turf in the FA Cup.

Highworth Town got the better of them on that day and Senior reckons that if the Bees can’t clear the first hurdle in the Vase they will only have themselves to blame.

The hosts, on paper at least, should be too strong for their opponents, who sit bottom of the Wessex League top flight with no points from seven outings.

Bridport put five past Bishop Sutton last Saturday and are in a comfortable mid-table position in the Western Premier Division.

Looking ahead to the cup clash, Senior said: “I’ve spoken to Dave Puckett, the ex-Weymouth player, about Totton & Eling as he was coaching there last season.

“I think they’ve made a few changes since then so I’ll probably speak to Dave again before the game.

“We focused on Highworth before the FA Cup game so maybe we should concentrate on ourselves this time.

“We’ve scored seven and conceded six in our last two matches, and have only really played in one half of those games.

“We need to start at 3pm rather than 4pm and take the game to the opposition.

“If we win this one we’ll be home in the next round so we can’t ask for anything more “We’ll only have ourselves to blame if we slip up.”

Jamie Fry comes in to replace the unavailable Ashley Weeks between the sticks, while Matt Condliffe is also not able to play in the tie.

“Jamie knows what it’s all about,” added Senior. “He has played for the first team a few times before.”

Ryan Dovell (2), Tom Richard-son, Adam Symes and man of the match Sean Stewart scored the goals that secured three points for the Bees last time out.

Senior admitted that he read the riot act to his charges when they were a goal behind at the break, and he was ecstatic by the way they responded to run out 5-2 winners.

He said: “It was basically what I said before the game, but I told the lads we didn’t look sharp enough, we didn’t get in their faces and, with the exception of one or two players, we needed to step it up a little bit.

"In fairness, I think the lads knew that as well and, fair play to them, once again we got a good response and this time we came away with the points.”

Bees (from): Fry, Filkins, Clarke, Stewart, Ry Hayter, A Symes, Wise, Rh Hayter, Richardson, Morley, Dovell, Symes, Watts