Bridlington Town slip to 3-0 loss at home to NPL East leaders Cleethorpes Town
Bridlington Town remain in relegation trouble after their 3-0 home loss to NPL Division East leaders Cleethorpes Town on Saturday.
Bridlington started the game brightly attacking the Cleethorpes goal with purpose and intent, writes Alexander Fynn.
Cam Connelly had the first chance for the Seasiders with a right-footed shot on the edge of the box, but his effort went straight to the Cleethorpes shot stopper. Cleethorpes spent the first 25 minutes on the backfoot as the hosts dominated, Cleethorpes chance came around about halfway through the first half as Sebastian Malkowski came out of his goal to save Bradley Abbott’s header, the Owls captain was quicker to react, and his header was fired over the bar.
Despite the sustained pressure from Bridlington, it was the Owls to strike first as the referee awarded Cleethorpes a free-kick, Nicky Walker took, but the Polish keeper pushed the ball back into play and the ball fell to Ben Middleton and the number five headed his shot past the diving home custodian.
As the second half began it was a midfield battle for possession, with neither side taking any control, however in the 69th minute Cleethorpes’ Josh Walker was one-on-one with Malkowski, but his low driven right footed shot was stopped right in between the Seasiders goalkeeper’s legs.
Town boss Mike Thompson rang the changes, Ahmed Salam and Pete Davidson came off to be replaced by Nathan Dyer and Simon Heslop.
Dyer and Heslop made no real impact in the game as Cleethorpes tripled their lead.
Captain Abbott was first to react from a through ball to the edge of the box and fired a left footed shot in the bottom corner. Moments later, Nicky Walker scored Cleethorpes third goal as the number 11 was one on one with the keeper and he fired his shot into the roof of the net.
Thompson said: “Well they are probably the leaders because they’re clinical, I don’t think they were not going to not score the opportunities, they were not much in it in the second half, they had a couple of opportunities and scored a couple of goals.”
The defeat left the Seasiders sitting in the relegation zone ahead of the midweek derby clash on the road at North Ferriby where the Queensgate men will be looking to take all three points as the season has turned into a battle for survival in NPL East.