Town Res 2 Penncroft 2
BRIDGNORTH’S management should take a bow after their hard work ensured the reserve side played their first competitive football for over a month.
Crown Meadow was passed fit to play on Saturday morning meaning Town and Penncroft played the only game in the league, seeing out a highly entertaining 2-2 draw.
Bridgnorth pressed from the start and threatened to take the lead on several occasions before Richard Golding opening the scoring on the half hour mark.
Town took a one goal lead in to half time and after dominating much of the play were hoping to seal their first home win of the season. But a resurgent Penncroft battled back and equalised on the hour mark.
Bridgnorth refused to give up and Ashley Jones – returning to the side for the first time since the start of the season - found the back of the net with a superb strike.
More pressure followed from the visitors and just when it looked like Town were going to hold out they conceded another equaliser in added time to make it 2-2.
Town secretary Mark McIntyre said the result was probably a fair one, although the home side should probably have taken their chances in the first half.
“The point was probably fair in the end, but Penncroft’s goalkeeper was my man-of-the-match because he made some great saves in the first half,” he said.
“It was a good game and it was nice to see Jamie Stainer returning to Crown Meadow for Penncroft, as he played for Town in the 1995-96 season.”
Mark also confirmed Ollie Brown has signed for the reserve team’s league rivals Wellington Ameteurs, and added manager Rick Doody will not be looking to replace him with anyone as he is happy with his current crop of players.
Both the firsts and the reserves have a busy February line-up following all the cancellations due to bad weather and no cup games will be played until March.
“The President’s Cup is a new open competition, which means the Bridgnorth sides could end up playing teams from a higher division,” added Mark. “We are hoping to either draw a top local side like Ludlow, or a side below us and see if we can make it into the quarter-finals.”
The first team’s match was again cancelled due to the bad weather and with snow falling on Wednesday it looked unlikely their game against Studley would go ahead either.
Town’s next match is at home to Alvechurch tomorrow, at 3pm while the reserves travel to Riverway.
