Match Report: Redcar Athletic 4-0 Bamber Bridge

A 4-0 win at Green Lane is the best way to rebound from the past few weeks

After our recent results, there was a definite need to produce a performance against someone, and a 4-0 win against Bamber Bridge was exactly what was needed.

A changed shape and lineup saw Mitch Parkinson and Kev Burgess both start their first league game this season, and Andrei Ardelean would start up front alongside Adam Boyes.

There was also the return of Oscar Fletcher and Lewis Hawkins, and it would be Oscar who would produce the first highlight.

A goal in the first 5 minutes saw a shot from Boyes parried out to Oscar, who would place his shot past the keeper to give us an early lead at Green Lane.

Mitch Parkinson would get an early booking for abruptly halting a chance for the visitors, but the resulting free kick wouldn’t pose a threat to our defence, with the final shot going behind for a goal kick.

We would keep peppering the Brig defence with crosses, passes, and shots, with the opponent’s goalkeeper making some great saves to keep the score the same.

His best so far would see a whipped-in ball volleyed towards goal by Adam Boyes, with the Brig keeper pulling off a point-blank stop to tip the ball over.

We would hit the half-hour mark with Bamber Bridge and us separated by that one goal, though the chances we had could have seen us 4 or 5-0 up.

A Lewis Hawkins strike in the 31st would see his cushioned shot bounce off the post, with the Steelmen then winning a foul slightly deeper.

A neat routine would see that dead ball played short and worked into the box, with a pass across the face of goal being bundled in by Andrei to double our lead.

Another save from the keeper would see him push behind another volley, this time from Nathan Guru, and the final act of the half would see a string of passes between Andrei and Curtis eventually see the ball go behind.

But we were leading as we entered the break, and it was a 2-0 lead at that!

The second half would start with some nerves, as Brig would form some chances for themselves, though eventually we would get back into the flow of things.

Some technical play from Oscar, Nathan, and Andrei saw the latter two link up in the end, with Andrei’s shot being deflected behind.

Josh Mazfari, who until now had been relatively untroubled bar a few crucial saves, nearly got an assist, as a long ball from his own area bounced just in front of Bosh and Andrei, though the Brig keeper was able to grab hold of it.

However, we would get a third very soon after, as some great dribbling from oscar allowed him to evade a defender and sweep a pass into the box that was tucked home by Adam Boyes.

The next ten minutes would be rather uneventful, but there would be a triple sub for the Steelmen, with Connor, Louis and Owen all brought on for Kev, Andrei and Lewis.

The final goal of the night would follow soon after, with a pass to Oscar being fed forward to Bosh, who would place a shot into the net to give us our fourth, and his second

That would be Adam’s last act too, as he would come off for Brad Fewster, whilst Luke Spalding would also come on in place of Curtis Round.

The final minutes of the game would revolve around three notable moments

The first two would happen at the same time, as whilst Bamber Bridge would miss a literal open goal, we would have a worrying situation occur with Josh Mazfari going down after a collision, with our goalkeeper being seen to for a chunk of the game

Luckily for him, and us, he was able to continue and finish the match, and there was very nearly a stunning fifth goal to wrap things up, with Luke Spalding going down the wing, before a pass into the box was deftly flicked towards goal by Louis Johnson, though his attempt was held by the Brig keeper

That would be the last bit to note too, and the full-time whistle would follow soon after.

Three points, along with results elsewhere, do mean we have returned to the top, even if it is very temporary, with the teams around us having one or two games extra to play.

Our next fixture sees us hosting Warrington Town at ours on Saturday, and recent results suggest this could go in any direction, so you will want to be there!

Line-ups:

Redcar Athletic: Mazfari, Parkinson, Round [Spalding, 80′], Bartliff (C), Rowe, Burgess [Smith, 72′], Guru, Hawkins [Burns, 73′], Boyes [Fewster, 79′], Fletcher, Ardelean [Johnson, 73′]

Unused subs: N/A

Bamber Bridge: Brier, Illingworth [Yamada, 82′], Kinght-Percival (C), Broughton, Adubofour [Trickett, 69′], Baxter, Allen, Barkhuizen, Thompson, Ayodele, Molloy [Butterworth, 68′]

Unused subs: Clark, Ajibola