Bridlington Town look to bounce back with a win at home to NPL East rivals Pontefract Collieries

The fixtures keep coming thick and fast for Denny Ingram’s side, who faced Cleethorpes Town on Tuesday evening. Bridlington battled hard, but despite opening the scoring through Sam Kay, conceded in the 93rd minute to suffer a 3-2 loss, writes Ben Edwards.

It was a controversial and dramatic ending to the game, as Bridlington felt the goalkeeper Sebastian Malkowski was fouled leading to the goal. Referee Ryan Coulson did not share that view, and booked Malkowski and Ingram for their protests.

Ingram, proud of his side's performance against a strong Cleethorpes side, said to the players: “Be angry, be upset, but you can’t be disheartened, because the performance should’ve brought us a point.”

It will be the second consecutive Saturday on home soil for Bridlington, after a superb 1-0 victory against Dunston last week.

Pontefract, like Dunston and Cleethorpes, are another side who have always been strong since the Seasiders joined the Northern Premier League, so it promises to be another tough encounter.

They had a change of manager during the summer, as Craig Rouse left to join Cleethorpes. His assistant at Pontefract, Jimmy Williams, stepped up to take the vacant manager position, having also played for the club previously.

He’s guided the Colls to a respectable start to the season, sitting eighth after 12 games with 19 points on the board.

Pontefract have won their last three games, so will go into Saturday’s encounter full of confidence.

They beat Sherwood Collieries 1-0 (away), Liversedge 3-1 (home) and most recently picked up a 3-2 victory away from home against Ashington AFC.

Prior to that, however, they went four games without scoring, with a winless run lasting six games in all competitions, so it’s very much been an up-and-down opening to their campaign.

Back in March, the two sides faced each other on two occasions, with Pontefract picking up a 3-0 victory at the Hunters Stadium. However, just two weeks later, it ended goalless on the east coast.

Two Bridlington players could be in line to face their former club, as Dan Hartley signed from Pontefract just two weeks ago. Malkowski also had a spell with the West Yorkshire side.