Bridlington Town’s FA Cup run ended by Friday night loss at Redcar Town
Bridlington Town’s Emirates FA Cup run came to an agonising end on Friday night as a second-half turnaround from Redcar Town saw the Seasiders fall to a 2-1 defeat despite leading at the break.
The match opened with early pressure from the hosts.
In the fourth minute, a Redcar cross was deflected behind, and the resulting corner flashed across the face of the goal before going out for an Alex Baird goal-kick.
Bridlington responded swiftly two minutes later when Ahmed Salam beat his defender on the wing, cut inside, and drilled a low cross that was turned behind for a corner.
The visitors came forward again and forced another corner which produced the opening goal in the 13th minute.
Salam’s low delivery caught the Redcar defence completely flat-footed, allowing Joe Pratley to get the touch needed to knock it home and give the Seasiders a 1-0 lead.
Following a quiet 10-minute spell, Redcar tested Baird in the 26th minute with a low shot towards his left post, which the Brid keeper handled well.
As the half wore on, Bolino picked up a yellow card in the 30th minute to halt a dangerous Redcar counter-attack.
A few half-chances fell to both sides before the half-time whistle, but neither keeper was seriously troubled as Bridlington took their 1-0 lead into half-time.
Brid Town made a double swap at the interval, bringing on Eddie Kettlewell and Billy Marshall for Casey Stewart and Bolino.
Redcar threatened early in the second half when their striker cut inside Coist Walker struck a low shot; Baird spilt the initial save but reacted quickly to gather the loose ball. Shortly after, a heavy challenge on a Bridlington player in the 52nd minute saw a Redcar man go into the book.
Bridlington almost doubled their lead moments later in the 53rd minute through Salam.
Collecting the ball on the edge of the area, he set himself and unleashed a low strike towards the bottom left corner, but the Redcar goalkeeper produced a fingertip save to push the ball onto the post and out for a corner.
The match grew increasingly physical around the hour mark.
After Marriott replaced debutant Wilson, Baird was called into action again at the other end, tipping a stinging shot from the left side of the box over the crossbar.
From the resulting corner, Baird again tipped the delivery over bar, but Redcar capitalised on the follow-up corner in the 62nd minute, stabbing the ball home from close range to level the score at 1-1.
Disaster struck for the visitors six minutes later, a miscalculated, short header back towards Baird was intercepted by the Redcar striker, who pounced on the loose ball and poked it past the onrushing keeper to make it 2-1 to the hosts.
Brid threw personnel forward in search of an equaliser, introducing Cooper for Walker and Birdsall for Nnenanya. In the 74th minute, a fluid passing move from one side to the other saw Batty lay the ball off to Pratley, whose cross was met by Toby Marriott, but his header looped over the bar.
Redcar Town saw the game out, holding the ball up as often as they could to prevent a Bridlington equaliser.
After a few added minutes the final whistle went and Bridlington's FA Cup run came to an end.
The Seasiders have a packed bank holiday week with trips to Grimsby Borough in the league on Wednesday night, before a quick turnaround sees Bridlington travel to Garforth Town in the FA Trophy on Friday evening, before Garforth Town then make the trip to Queensgate on Bank Holiday Monday in the Northern Premier League East.