BRIDPORT manager Chris Herbst said his side "found a way' to win after going behind twice to Stoke Gabriel & Torbay Police on Saturday.
The Bees had to come from behind in a scrappy, stop-start encounter at Stoke Gabriel but emerged 4-2 winners thanks to late goals and a refusal to let frustration take over.
Falling behind to what Herbst described as a soft opener “against the run of play”, after a bouncing ball was poked in, it could easily have knocked them off course after a demoralising defeat to Bovey Tracey a week prior.
Instead Bridport levelled from the spot through Sol Ayunga who was brought down by two converging defenders, only for Stoke to edge back in front with another untidy effort before the break.
After half-time, the visitors’ resolve was tested again when Will Gape thought he had made it 2-2, only for his close-range finish from a Harley Brooks cross to be ruled out for offside.
Herbst was left baffled, insisting the wrong player had been flagged and that Brooks had beaten his man from an onside position.
Crucially, the controversy did not derail them for long, with Riley Weedon soon equalising to restore belief and tilt the momentum in the Bees favour.
Herbst later introduced Callum Arnold from the bench and that decision proved decisive as the forward was clumsily brought down in the box, earning what his manager called another “stonewall” penalty that Ayunga calmly dispatched to make it 3-2.
With the game heading into the closing stages, Brooks produced “a hell of a ball” from a corner despite only three men being committed into the box and Gape rose to plant a superb header into the net to finally kill the contest.
“We just found a way to win and we pushed on more than what they did I suppose,” Herbst said, summing up the character shown by his team.
Herbst admitted it had been “a difficult game because it was so stop start” with the referee’s whistle rarely out of action, making it hard for either side to build any kind of rhythm.
He added: “Overall I was definitely really happy because Stoke Gabriel is a tough place to go."
The result keeps them firmly in the hunt for second place and, while Herbst believes leaders Bovey Tracey are “nailed on to win it”, he wants his players to keep “chipping away”, finish strongly and hit the 70‑point mark as a marker of their progress.
He added: “For us we just got to make sure we cement that second spot… a couple more wins should solidify that to make sure we make that our own to be to be honest.
“We just want to make sure we finish the season strong and ideally hit the 70 plus mark point in the league and then to be honest that's quality from us to be fair."
Bridport now have back-to-back home games with Ilfracombe on Saturday and third place Cullompton on Tuesday night.
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