Coulson fires Bridlington Town to FA Trophy win against derby rivals North Ferriby
A magnificent crowd of over 650 attended the Mounting Systems Stadium on Friday evening as Bridlington Town took on North Ferriby, as they progressed to the next round of the FA Trophy.
The reward for the Seasiders is another home tie on Saturday October 4 against Northern Premier League Premier Division mid-table side Guiseley AFC in the Third Qualifying Round.
Town’s scheduled NPL Division East fixture on the road at Bishop Auckland will now be moved to Tuesday November 4.
Only a few weeks previous the teams had met in the league, and it was the Seasiders that had ran out as the 2-0 victors on that meeting on August Bank Holiday Monday which led to much anticipation ahead of the Friday night clash.
From kick-off both sides were determined to show their superiority, neither side backed down from a tackle and in what many could say became a war on the pitch, as both sides were clearly up for the challenge.
Bridlington had their chances on goal as did the visitors but neither side were able to break the deadlock and the first half ended in a stalemate.
Ferriby had a half-chance to go in a goal to the good, but the shot was wide of the mark much to the frustrations of the visitors.
As the second half began Bridlington began with purpose in attack forcing the Ferriby side into defensive action, with a flurry of shots at goal and pegging the visitors into their own half, although the visitors had their chances with a length of the field run through Jack Johnson, but his effort was denied by excellent defending from Thompson’s men.
The game changer came when the referee awarded a penalty to the Seasiders, it appeared that Coulson had been brought down whilst attacking the Ferriby goal, Coulson duly converted his penalty to send the bumper crowd into raptures.
Ferriby pushed for an equaliser, but Josh Whitely’s effort was denied.
With changes made to the Brid attack, it seemed the hosts had been reinvigorated.
As the Seasiders dominated the last quarter, Ben Farrar impressed and Charlie Dunkerley sent the crowd into hysterics as he doubled the lead to see the Seasiders into the next round.
Brid boss Mike Thompson said: “We were a little bit sloppy in the first 45, it felt like a scrappy derby day in the first half, everything just seemed to be a yard off.
"At half-time we spoke about tidying up and changed our style a little, we believed we’d be fitter than them which proved to be the case, and restricting them to nothing, to come out 2-0 is testament to the effort of the side.”