Wessex Premier Division.

BRADING TOWN 1 v 2 Christchurch.

As seen by WES ESSEX.

Brading Town’s improved second half performance was not enough to prevent them going down 1-2 against  Christchurch at a wet Peter Henry Ground on Saturday.

Manager Steve Brougham was delighted the game was actually on as another postponement would have meant Brading only playing one game in nearly four weeks and it would of seen the club seven games behind some clubs. Brougham was forced into two changes from the side that lost to Alresford ten days ago, Joe Rayner was suspended and Danny Hatcher pulled out feeling unwell. Into the side came Will Quigley and Matt Miles.

The game started with Brading kicking down the slope, but it was the visitors who started much the better, going close three times in the opening ten minutes. Although the pitch was cutting up Christchurch were playing a neat passing game that was opening up the home side’s defence and McCormack had to be at his best in the 15th minute to turn a drive around the post. From the resulting corner McCormack punched clear of the penalty box only for a Christchurch player to thunder in a shot back that Sprooles,who was on the post, somehow managed to head clear for another corner. The Christchurch pressure finally brought them a goal on 20 minutes when another corner eluded everyone at the near post, struck Fleming’s leg and rolled into his own net with a visitoring player helping it on it’s way. Brading began to get to grips with the conditions as the half wore on and nearly equalised just after the half hour when Miles threaded the ball through the visitor’s defence to send Vale clear, but the experienced Kearn in the Christchurch goal saved Vale’s strike low down to his right. Christchurch were still creating chances and it took a superb challenge from Fleming to deny a goal-scoring opportunity from a breakaway, sliding at least five yards across the muddy surface to make it. H/T 0-1.

Brougham decided to make a change at half-time bringing on Buckett for Przespolewski. The heavens opened as the second half  begun in torrential rain, but it didn’t affect Christchurch as they increased their lead within three minutes of the restart. The ball was crossed into the Brading box and the visitor’s forwards were twice denied by two terrific saves from McCormack before the ball was finally forced in. Shortly after the goal Appell, who was returning to the side after an ankle injury, replaced Miles. The Romans enjoyed their best spell after this and were almost rewarded with a goal back when a Phelps cross was met by a goal-bound header from Appell, that was smartly saved by Kearn. With fifteen minutes left the Romans finally scored, a corner from the left was partially cleared to Vale on the edge of the box and his shot beat everyone apart from Sprooles standing in from of the goal-line who tapped in, making sure the ball crossed the line. The final minutes saw Christchurch comfortably hold out for the points and the referee blew his whistle, relieved the game was completed. The pitch took a hell of a battering and groundsman Dave Brown will have his work cut out to get it ready for the game Wednesday night at home to Totton and Eling. FT 1-2.

Brading Town Man of the Match..OLLIE FLEMING.
 
Team…McCormack Phelps Quigley Sunsburg Fleming Stuber Przespolewski Ford Miles Vale Sprooles. 

Subs…Buckett  Appell Reeve Younie Greening S.
 
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IOW Memorial Cup.

BRADING TOWN RES 4 v 1 Pan Sports.

( Vale 2, Jones 1 & Rudd 1 )

As seen by STAN DUPP.

Brading moved into the next round with relative ease. After taking a well deserved 2-0 goal lead, some lax defending allowed Pan a way back into the game, 2-1.  The Pan keeper and some resolute defending, plus poor finishing was the only thing preventing a land slide….. Brading should have gone into the break 4 or 5 goals clear. On the stroke of half time, ref Brian Hayward reduced Pan to 10 men, a Pan defender was deemed to have stopped an obvious goal scoring opportunity. H/T 2-1.

The 2nd half saw Brading on almost non stop attack, again poor finishing kept Pan in with a chance, and to their credit, they refused to roll over. Mid way thro the half and Vale came on and immediately he caused Pan problems, 2 goals from Vale clinched the game.

Team..Henderson Woodnutt Rudd Younie Quigley Collins C Hitchcox L Sunsburg  Armstrong S Jones Buckett.

Subs..Vale Lewis Crabbe.

Brading Town Man of the Match..Adam Sunsburg.

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IOW Saturday League, Comb 1.

BRADING TOWN “A” 6 v 1 Carisbrooke Res.

( Neale 2 Woodhouse 2 Larbalestier 1 Davy 1 )

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Mid-Solent U16 League.

College Youth “B” P v P BRADING TOWN “A”.

Ensinger 4 v 1 BRADING TOWN “B”.

( Rob Gray )

Wessex Premier Division.

Alresford Town 1 v 0 BRADING TOWN.

As seen by Stan Dupp.

On a damp and miserable night on the mainland, the Romans produced a damp and miserable performance against the divisions bottom side. A very poor first 15 mins saw Brading lucky to be still on level terms, thanks mainly to some superb keeping by Joe McCormack. Gradually they manged to claw their way back into the game  and Hatcher produced some good touches down the right, unfortunately his cross’s were not attacked at all by the forwards and went begging.

The middle midfield saw Alresfords number 8 dominate proceedings, Sunsburg and Rayner were unable to gain any control in there. Sprooles was hardly seeing any ball and was unable to get into the game.

At the back Stuber was outstanding, as he continued his rich vein of form, he was backed fully by Fleming, who is slowly getting over his recent “groin” problem. Ford & Phelps also put in decent performances. Sadly the game was lost in the midfield battle and the inability of the ball to stick up front!!

Brading did improve in the 2nd half and dominated most of the play, only to find a keeper on great form as he produced several very good saves. Buckett came on a did well, held the ball up and was unlucky not to find and equaliser.

Wessex Premier Division.

BRADING TOWN 1 v 0 Poole Town.

As reported by WES ESSEX.

Brading Town enjoyed one of their best ever victories in beating Wessex league leader’s and last season’s champions Poole Town 1-0, in a gripping game at the Peter Henry Ground on Saturday.

For the first time this season Steve Brougham was able to name an unchanged starting line-up from the side that drew at Totton & Eling last Tuesday night. He was also able to name a full compliment of substitutes with Danny Hatcher, Will Quigley, Danny Reeve & Simon Armstrong all returning to join Ollie Buckett on the bench.

Brading kicked down the slope in front of a strong contingent of visiting supporters who made their present known with a number of flags behind Joe McCormack’s goal.

The first 45 minutes were largely dominated by Poole Town with McCormack  having to make a number of superb saves, but the visitor’s forwards were also guilty of not making most of their chances. The league leaders did not have everything there way though, with Vale and Przespolewski both going close after good runs. HT 0-0.

The second half was only ten minutes old when Brading took the lead. Przespolewski won the ball and pushed forward before putting in a low cross towards the back post where SPROOLES slid in with defender, he did not manage to get a proper contact with the ball, but enough to trickle past the wrong footed Poole keeper, who had time to scramble back and clear with his boot as the ball crossed the line. The referee initially waved play on, but he noticed the assistant’s flag and after a brief conversation the goal was given much to Poole’s dismay. The visitors immediately went on the attack and started to throw a number of high balls into the box, which suited the Romans defence as Fleming and Stuber dealt magnificently with them.

With Poole doing the attacking, it was Brading who nearly increased their lead when Przespolewski was put through clean on goal, only to see his effort beat the keeper, but go past the post. Minutes later the hard working Vale almost got the goal he deserved when he pounced on a ball over the top, but his attempted lob was easily gathered by the keeper. With 25 minutes left Hatcher came on for Sprooles and his impact was immediate, running at the Poole defence before having his shot comfortably saved. The tension was mounting as the minutes were ticking down and McCormack had again to be at his best in making a fine double save. Brading could have sealed the victory with minutes remaining when Hatcher broke down the right before crossing towards the penalty spot where it was met by a flying volley from Przespolewski that flew just over the bar. The final whistle was greeted by a large cheer from supporters and players alike in celebrating this unlikely, but deserved win. Every player worked their socks off for the cause and if this commitment and spirit is shown in future games Brading will move rapidly up the league FT 1-0.

Brading Town Man of the Match..DANNY VALE.

 Team..McCormack Phelps Stuber Fleming Ford Prezespolewski Rayner Miles Sunsburg Sprooles Vale.

Subs…Hatcher Armstrong Quigley Reeve Buckett.

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As noted by Stan Dupp.

A tremendous victory over league leaders Poole Town. After weeks of  bad luck, injuries, illness and suspensions, manager Steve Brougham was able to put out one of his strongest squads so far this season. The pre-match atmosphere in the club house seemed to be a Poole Town  victory (already) as their supporters took their full quota of drinks…..the reality was that Brading turned in a team performance of outstanding fighting qualities, something that the Poole side and their supporters were unable to swallow. It was sad to see that not one Poole player or supporter was able to make it to the clubhouse post-match….( apart from the one gentleman that came in and shook hands and said well played ) I re-call in losing 10-1 at Poole and every Brading player & supporter attending the post match bar….to be a good winner you have to be a good loser.

There is no ” I ” in team and there certainly wasn’t in the Brading side today.

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Hampshire Jun “A” Cup.

Inmar 1 v 6 BRADING TOWN RES.

BRADING TOWN “A” 1 v 6 Allbrook.

( Ben Armstrong )

Mid-Solent U16 League.

BRADING TOWN U16 “A” 0 v 10 AFC Portchester.

BRADING TOWN U16 “B” 1 v 1 Locks Heath Lions.

( Rob Gray )

Tuesday 3rd Nov.

Wessex Premier Division.

Totton & Eling 1 v 1 BRADING TOWN.

As reported by Wes Essex.

Brading Town halted their run of four defeats with a deserved point in 1-1 draw at Totton and Eling on Tuesday night.

Steve Brougham was forced to make two changes from the side that lost on Saturday at Fareham. Josh Appell and Danny Reeve were out injured and were replaced by Adam Sunsburg and Dan Vale.

Brading started brightly forcing a corner within 10 seconds of start, but it was comfortably cleared. The rest of first half was fairly even affair with no chances for either side until the later stages. The first opportunity fell to Przespolewski who unleashed a shot that the keeper held at the second attempt with Vale looking for the loose ball. Then McCormack was called upon to make two saves in the last two minutes of the half. The first saw him at full stretch diving low to his right after a Totton forward was clean through and a minute later he had to block a shot at his near post. HT 0-0.

The second half started badly for the Romans when they conceded a goal within a minute of the restart. A long ball was cleared to the edge of the box by Fleming only to see Eyles fire in a superb 25 yard strike giving McCormack no chance. The home side went searching for a second goal and it took a tremendous save from the Brading keeper to keep his side in the game. A right wing cross was met by a header that looked destined for the top right corner before McCormack tipped the ball around the post.

This seemed to lift the visitors and Przespolewski nearly grabbed an equaliser when his low drive from the edge of the penalty box was deflected round the post. The goal Brading had been promising finally came with 18 minutes left after Brougham attempted to make a substitution. The ball went out of play down the right, but the referee failed to see the assistant flagging for the change and the play continued with Brading forcing a corner. The corner from the right was whipped in by the left foot of Ford and as several players went up for the header the ball ended in the net. It appeared to come off a Totton head at first, but VALE later claimed it clipped his shoulder on the way in  :/

The substitution was made straight after the goal with Buckett replacing Sprooles. The last few minutes saw the rain come down and Brading content to hold out for a point. A great result for the Romans and the players spirits were certainly lifted after the game. FT 1-1.

Brading Town Man of the Match..JOE McCORMACK.
 
Team..McCormack Phelps Stuber Fleming Ford Sunsburg Miles Raynor Prez Sprooles Vale.

Subs..Buckett Younie Greening S.