Bridlington Town beat hosts Consett in five-goal thriller

The home side started the game brightly, but it was the visitors who took the lead. Matt Broadley picked up the ball on the edge of the penalty area, dribbled into the 18-yard box, beating multiple men before finishing nicely into the bottom right hand corner.

Just after the half-hour mark Seasiders skipper Matty Plummer had to make way due to injury. Jack Yates came on for the captain, the introduction of the attacking midfielder forcing Andy Norfolk to drop to a deeper midfield role and Noah Stokes switched from holding midfield to centre-back.

With just three minutes until the break, Zak Atkinson headed home a leveller at the back post from close range.

Town came agonisingly close to reclaiming the lead in the second minute of injury-time. Andy Norfolk whipped in a corner, which was won by centre-back Jack Bulless. The ball looked to have crossed the line, and there were also appeals from Brid players for a handball, but the officials said no on both fronts.

Throughout the second half, Consett put relentless pressure on the Town defence, but the visitors defended like warriors and reaped the rewards of dealing with Consett’s constant attacks with two quickfire goals.

After coming close in the first half, Bulless finally found the back of the net. He beat keeper Mark Foden to the ball from Norfolk’s inswinging corner to head Brid into the lead from close range in the 77th minute.

Following the team’s first goal from a corner all season, they netted another from a corner just seven minutes after. Martindale, who showed terrific workrate all afternoon, won a corner down the left. Yet again, it was Norfolk who took it. This time the keeper did get to the ball first, but he could only punch the ball to Benn Lewis, whose first-time, side-footed volley doubled the visitors’ lead.

Consett did pull one back with just one minute of regular time remaining, after Declan Bisset’s deflected effort beat Brid keeper James Hitchcock.