Bridlington Town surge to 4-0 win as Stocksbridge Park Steels end match with eight men
Lewis Dennison returned from suspension to lead the line in place of Glen Sani, whilst Ellis Barkworth came into the midfield as Matty Dixon was unavailable, writes Ben Edwards.
Tomas Poole unleashed the first shot of the game, with James Hitchcock tipping his effort from 20 yards around the left post.
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Hide AdJust a minute later, Poole had an almost identical effort, though this time it went wide of the left post.
Andy Norfolk and Dennison linked up well before the latter played an excellent ball through to George Harrison, though his one-on-one was saved by Ben Townsend.
The scoring was opened after 15 minutes, when a great ball was played through to Ali Aydemir on the right, he squared it to Benn Lewis, who made no mistake firing past Townsend from inside the penalty area.
Just three minutes later the advantage was doubled, and it was the opposite fullback with the goal, as Jack Walters headed home after a corner from the right.
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Hide AdChances were hard to come by for the remainder of the first half, though Norfolk’s inswinging corner found Lewis, who headed over the crossbar at the back post.
A minute later the ball was rolled back to Luke Hogg, but he skied it from 30 yards.
In the first of seven added minutes at the end of the first half, due to a nasty eye injury to Luke Rawson, Hitchcock got down low to save well one-on-one at the near post.
Stocksbridge produced a good move at the start of the second half, but it was eventually hit miles over by Jack Tinker.
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Hide AdTwo minutes later Norfolk’s effort from 20 yards curled wide of the right post. Barkworth then found space a further five yards out, but struck low and straight at Townsend.
Lewis was dispossessed inside his own penalty area, but Hitchcock got his teammate out of trouble, producing a fingertip save.
The visitors’ danger man Basille Zottos beat multiple men whilst cutting infield, but his effort was deflected over. From the resulting corner, it was somehow skied at the back post.
Shortly after, Zottos made another mazy run, before winning a free kick high up the field on the left flank. Despite the narrow angle, the set-piece was fired towards goal, just evading the top right corner.
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Hide AdWith 16 minutes remaining, a sublime counter attack was Aydemir run through from the half-way, before finishing excellently past Townsend.
Again it was three minutes that separated goals, as Aydemir got his brace.
Dennison made a superb run down the left before crossing to Aydemir, who brought it down and fired into the back of the net.
Already playing with 10 men, as a player was forced off through injury after all three subs had been made, Steels captain Jordan Lemon was shown a red card by Matty Wright for dissent.
It went from bad to worse for the visitors, when they saw Poole sent off for dissent.