Match Report: Redcar Athletic 4-1 Bradford Park Avenue

3 goals away from a +50 GD, and it's not even GW20, this season has been great for us.

Since I first started this job back in September, I’ve been fortunate enough to see us win countless games with varying scorelines. This, however, is probably the best match I’ve seen us play so far.

Beforehand though, it was a Remembrance Day memorial, which saw a wreath of poppies laid and a minute’s silence rightfully observed before kick-off, with the players, fans and staff all standing shoulder to shoulder, to honour those who fought for our country.

A Bradford side who were sat in 3rd, with just 9 goals conceded, was going to be a test for any team, and it was no different for us, even when we were putting high amounts past almost everyone.

However, the match couldn’t have started any better for the Steelmen, as within two minutes we led.

Louis Johnson laid a pass across the field to Owen Burns, who took a touch and played his own pass through the middle to Bradley Fewster.

Last week’s hat-trick hero made no mistake early on today as he rolled the ball into the far corner, giving us a very quick lead.

That goal woke everyone up, and Bradford quickly solidified their defence, preventing us from being able to score another.

Bradford began to press more for an equaliser, but Mazfari was thankfully on hand to gather their attempted shots, with our defence also being on hand to put in some quality tackles too.

From one end of the pitch to the other, we were able to pounce on Bradford’s attacking play to double our lead, with Mark Anderson playing a long ball over the top to Louis Johnson, who produced some great moves to get a pearl of a cross into the box and straight onto the head of Adam Boyes.

A bullet header from our striker meant it was 2-0 to us, and it also meant Bosh now had his 20th league goal of the season!

We kept pushing for another goal as the half ticked on, but Bradford were now sat deep in their own box, and it meant that every opportunity was blocked or cleared away from goal, much to our frustrations.

The half-time whistle ultimately came with the Steelmen being 2 goals to the good, with the final bit of action being for the visitors, who narrowly put a header wide of Mazfari’s net.

Another 45 minutes began with two subs, as John Howard and JJ Bartliff came on for Anderson and Fewster.

These changes didn’t alter our ability though, as we bagged a third goal in the 54th minute, as moments after a scuffle with a Bradford player, Curtis Round got the ball, made his way into the box, and thundered a strike past the keeper and into the net.

Our lead was tripled, and as Curtis ran to celebrate with Carl Jarrett, the fans celebrated amongst themselves.

Those celebrations were quickly halted though, as straight from kick off Bradford pulled one back, as a fast break from a quick free kick allowed one of their players to slip a shot between Mazfari’s legs and into the net.

However, from the following kick-off, we nearly grabbed a fourth goal, as Owen Burns got a great chance, but saw his shot clip off a defender and fall into the keeper’s hands.

Bradford began to try earn more set pieces, presumably realising that that was their ticket to success, but they couldn’t fashion anything troubling for our defence and so the score sat at 3-1 for a good while.

Our opponent’s keeper began to think of himself as Manuel Neuer at some stage of the game too, as whenever he got the ball he would take multiple steps out of his area to launch the ball forward

In the 92nd minute Bradford got a gilded chance to halve their trailing tally, but a phenomenal save from Mazfari meant the score was to stay the same, and in the dying seconds we got what was rightfully ours.

Bradford’s keeper went on one of those wanders, lost the ball to substitute Bryan Taylor, who flicked the ball to Adam Boyes. With no hesitation, Boyes hit the ball towards goal, and after what felt like hours, it trickled over the line to seal all three points for us, and it meant Bosh got a brace!

The celebrations that ensued quickly turned into a scuffle, much to the amusement of the Redcar fans, but what was a fact was that we had won, and comfortably won at that.

Thanks to Heaton Stannington as well, our lead at the top of the table is now 9 points, which means we need to go an entire month without a win, whilst Matlock need to simultaneously go a month without losing.

But the end of the season is a long way away. Who knows what will happen between then and now?

Up next, we travel to Brighouse as we take on…well, Brighouse in our next league fixture.

They have been kind enough to allow any season ticket holders to get a reduced admission, whether that season ticket be with us, Middlesbrough, or… Sunderland 🙁

Hope to see you there, if not then there will be live updates on our 𝕏 (Twitter) page.

Up the Steelmen!