Brid Town power to 5-0 cup win against Brandesburton
NPL East Division team Bridlington Town eased to a 5-0 home victory against Humber Premier League strugglers Brandesburton in the East Riding County FA Senior Cup on Tuesday evening.
A strong Seasiders line-up swept into the next round of the cup thanks to early goals from Ahmed Salam (2) and Michael Coulson, with Jake Day and young sub Charley Whight adding a goal apiece in the final quarter of the cup-tie.
Zac Hibbard also made his debut as a half-time sub after joining Town on loan from League Two side Chesterfield.
Brid boss Mike Thompson said: "We wanted to get the job done early and then get rest in players and get minutes into players who needed them, so at 5-0, we’ve got different scorers on and we gave people the rest they needed and it was a job well done.
"To score the goals early like we did meant we could make the changes early to protect boys. We created a lot but it took a while to get going, but once we got a foothold we passed the ball around well, we could have scored a few more but we wanted to get the job done.
"This is a competition we think we can win, we knew that if we won tonight we don’t play again until February. We wanted to start strong and then be able to rest players.”
Thompson was also impressed by the impact that loanee Hibbard made in the second half.
He added: “He has trained with us a little bit last week so it fell well for an opportunity to get him on the pitch today to see what he is about.
"Because we shuffled a bit he was out of position, he is a right-sided centre-half or right-back and we put him on the left and he did well. He was combative, front-footed in everything he did defensively and didn’t make any mistakes so it was nice to get him in.
"He’s another option for us because some of the injuries we have got. Pete Davidson we could not risk today, Josh Barrett was not ready and Ben Farrah was out, so it is a little threadbare and Zac has taken his opportunity.”
Town dominated from the kick-off, Casey Stewart having a couple of early chances, his second being tipped over the bar by the Brandesburton keeper.
The deadlock was broken on 16 minutes when Michael Coulson rifled the ball into the back of the net after a deflection off Jake Day, and only four minutes later Salam made it 2-0 after a dragback from Stewart.
The game was over as a contest after only 25 minutes when Salam slotted the ball home after a fine ball from Stewart.
The hosts could well have been six or seven goals clear at the break, as Salam, Day and Dunkerley all went close to scoring, and with Town in cruise control Thompson subbed off Salam and Alex Markham nine minutes before the break, Jak Whiting and Joe Batty replacing them.
At the interval Whight, Hibbard and Brodie Sedman came on for skipper Matty Dixon, Tom Allan and Coulson as Thompson rotated his squad.
Day added a fourth goal for the Seasiders on 69 minutes, and Whight completed the scoring 10 minutes from time after a strike from Batty was saved by the keeper, the young sub scoring from the rebound.
Bridlington Town: J Dash, A Markham (J Batty 36 mins), B Lewis, M Dixon (C Whight 46mins), K Williams, T Allan (Z Hibbard 46 mins), C Stewart, C Dunkerley, J Day, M Coulson (B Sedman 46 mins), A Salam (J Whiting 36 mins).