Boro stand firm in Bridge battle

After a previously shocking run of form, Boro are now unbeaten in four games, and the threat of relegation now looks a distant one.

There was a further boost at Saturday's game, as assistant-manager Chris Bolder was named as a player for the first time in well over a year, after he shook off the horrific leg injuries sustained in a home game against Bamber Bridge in November of 2014.

Bolder was named on the bench, though Boro were still without Matty Bloor and Dean Lisles, who are still hampered by knocks.

The game crept away to a slow start, as both sides found their way on what was a challenging surface, that resembled a beach in some places and a bog in others.

Bridge soon began to feel their way into the better positions and they were unlucky not to pull away from Steve Kittrick's visitors.

Steve Mallory did well to hack Glenn Steel's bobbling effort off the line, then Nick Draper made two fine stops to deny the lively Regan Linney.

The first half struggled to get above walking pace though, with the pitch ruling out any precision approach play.

Many of the chances that occurred came from errors, and Linney almost took advantage of one of these after 39 minutes.

The Boro defence struggled to cope with a bouncing ball and Linney nipped in, though his shot was deflected past Draper's upright.

Boro finished the half strongly though, but they still failed to register a shot on goal in the opening 45 minutes of football.

The second half began with a few nervous moments, as Draper dropped the ball in the box only for Mallory to poke it away. Mallory was again on hand to nick the ball off Stuart Vasey's toe as the Bamber man was about to pull the trigger.

Boro then set out on an assault of their own, one that almost yielded the opener.

Bamber keeper Lee Dovey panicked as a ball come in from the left and fumbled it just over his own bar.

From the resulting corner, Nathan Peat met the ball, but his header smashed against the outside of the upright.

By this point, Boro had made a couple of forced changes, with both Ryan Blott and Mallory limping off, Callum Robinson and Jamie Forrester replacing them.

Boro retreated further and further back towards their own goal as the minutes ticked on, as an in-form Bamber went in search of the winner.

The visitors dug deep though, and the only real opportunity created was a bouncing Jamie Milligan free-kick that was brilliantly pushed away by Draper to guarantee his clean-sheet.

The final whistle was met by cheers of appreciation from the few travelling Boro fans, who played their part in another good performance.