Bridge Tavern 4-3 Butler Utd

After being drawn at home for the 3rd consecutive round in the Notts Junior Cup, the bridge were hoping to go where they hadn’t gone before, and that was into the last 16 of a cup competition for the 1st time in their brief history.
For some strange reason, despite being at home, pitch 7 was not in use, and the team had to use Pitch 5, a spokesman for the Manor Park was making no comment on the switch, and was not quoted as saying “I have no comment to make”. Luckily the monorail was working to take the players the 5km to pitch side.
As with most things, the Bridge took it all in their stride and got on with the job in hand, although I was a little peeved as the pitch being used offered an excellent vantage point for the match to be filmed (which will happen one day, promise, with me selling copies on Ebay for 50pence each after the event).
Most of the players missing from the previous week’s defeat in the league were back, Kirk had a 2 week leave notice so it was still a much changed line up to the one we have been used to. The line up was as follows.

Scott and Daz were on the bench.

The visitors meanwhile contained someone called Errol, although it remains to be seen still if it was the actually Errol Brown from Hot Chocolate, or even Errol the Hamster, Roland Rat’s best mate.
The bridge made history just prior to kick off, as they made the quickest substitution in footballing History, Manq who had put in a poor showing in the warm up was replaced by Daz, leaving Gav and Gallagher to run the show up front.
The visitors contained someone who was just a couple of pounds under my weight, and it was him that had the 1st shot that Lormor saved comfortably.

We didn’t have to wait long for the 1st goal though, as the Bridge’s 1st effort made it into the visiting net. (I timed the goal at 4 minutes 10 seconds, which is more amazing than it sounds, as I wasn’t even wearing a watch.) A poor clearance from the away keeper, found it’s way to Gav, who connected brilliantly from 25 yards out, which left the keeper waving at the large populated home support as the ball thumped into his net.
The keeper, wanting to give us all a reconstruction shortly after, this time laid his poor kick at the feet of Gallagher, but his low effort was well blocked by the last defender. Most of the other early exchanges were done in midfield, but the visitors were level on 13 minutes, when Gallagher tried to beat a defender and lost possession mid way through the visitors half, from where a long ball over the top, saw number 10 in on goal, and he had no hesitation in slotting past the oncoming Lormor. A disappointing way to concede so soon after taking the initiative. This is where the away side would have grabbed the bull by the horns, but after a quick search of neighbouring fields, no bull was located. (You can’t beat a bit of bully).

A long throw in from the visitors caused confusion in the home defence, which eventually led to one of the visiting strikers being caught offside, although it was debatable if Quiche knew or not as he thrashed home a lovely right footed volley that hit both posts before nestling in the bottom corner of the net.
At the other end, a quick free kick taken by Jay in tandem with Daz, saw the ball returned to Jay, whose shot was deflected wide. From the resulting corner, the rather tallish keeper claimed easily, and launched a long clearance that caught the home defence still queuing at the snap shed, leaving the striker in on goal and able to lob Lormor to make it 2-1 to the home side.

In their frustration at going behind, James fouled a visiting player, and was promptly told to go and stand at the back of the class by the fussy referee. Jay tried to get the home side back in the game but his effort was off target, whilst James followed up his earlier foul by doing it all again and finding himself wincing on the ground in agony after being slam dunked on the back of the head. From the resulting free kick, which was just outside the area, Lormor forgot he had two hands, and the ball went under his 2 studded boots and into the corner of the net, groans could be heard from the large home contingent and the 3-1 scoreline was a little harsh to say the least. .
Geary who was rolling back the years (a bit like Asda do!) in midfield did well to set in Bread on the right as the Bridge tried to get back in the game, but Bread’s ball into Gav saw a vicious volley that the keeper did well to tip over.

Lormor at the other end made up for his free kick error, as he did well to tip wide another effort for the visitors.
Ashley had to come off for his double, double vision, and to quote a phrase from our experienced defender, he should have gone to specsavers. Scott replaced him at the back, just prior to the referee blowing for half time.

Half Time 1-3

There were a few tactical changes at the break, I’m thick and didn’t really notice them to be honest. Bread was determined to foul someone early on, for that he succeeded after a couple of failed attempts. Gav had a early effort that went just wide, whilst there was controversy just after, once Jay had put Danny in, and once his effort had rebounded of several bodies, the right back decided he would prefer to be playing basketball, and just after he’d dunked one into the basket, the ball was cleared. Now everyone at the Manor, and in Mansfield Woodhouse had seen what had happened, except one important person, yes you’ve guessed it, the referee, and despite being surrounded by both sets of players screaming “penalty”, he decided to wave play on. Luckily justice was not long around the corner, as a long ball over the top of the visiting defence, found Gav in plenty of space to score his second of the game and put the Bridge back into the thick of things. Gallagher came close to equalizing as the Bridge were now on top, to which I commentated it’s a position I like to be in.

The visitors were reduced down to 10 men when a defender decided he had had enough, and just walked of the pitch, we all thought it was a little strange, but he simply just buggered off the pitch. Quiche meanwhile was disagreeing with a decision the referee had made, and was promptly told not to shout too loud as the referee was getting a migraine. Daz had a raising effort tipped over, and brother Danny also went close as the Bridge began to press home their one man advantage.
Bread was determined to enter the referees notebook, but the man in black didn’t oblige, although the foul Bread did on the rampaging number 10 as we was clear on goal, was about as professional as you get, Mellors despite being in the other half at the time made the point that he would have got back in time (only if a shuttle bus service was running on the sidelines he would have!).
The Bridge were back level though on 71 minutes, Bread threw to Daz who returned to Bread, and his ball down the line found Gav, but his cross was blocked and went out for a throw in, which Gav took himself, quickly, and found Danny Lee who slid the ball across dangerously into the area, which Jay himself slid in to put the Bridge well and truly back in the game.

Gav went close straight after to win it for the Bridge , but his effort was just over, Bread shot straight at the keeper following a corner, with the only question now a matter of time before the Bridge won the game.

Gav - Hero

Anyway, with the crowd still claiming a dodgy penalty, Gav suddenly popped up from nowhere to pop the winner home, and grab a hat trick at the same time, and the crowd went wild, if only for the fact that they didn’t have to freeze their tits of for another half hour. Gav could have made the game safe just after his hat trick heroics, but his shot went flying over. Bridge had two heart stopping moments as the game wore to a close, both the number 6 and number 10 for the visitors have TAXI moments, needlessly blasting over or wide when they should have had efforts on target.

But, the Bridge held firm, despite several panicky moments in the last 10 minutes, and yet despite being 3-1 down, they came back strongly in an excellent 2^nd half performance.