Ten-man Bridlington Town suffer 3-0 defeat at Stocksbridge Park Steels

The visitors had the first shot of the game through Ryan Caulfield, but his 30-yard effort was deflected into the arms of Henry Hampshaw, writes Ben Edwards.

Steels did have a chance however, when Sutton put a low cross behind for the hosts’ first corner. It came in from the right and the Brid defence allowed Elliot Murray to have a free header, though he put it wide.

Just four minutes later, Stocksbridge had the ball in the back of the net when Benn Lewis let his man get in behind him. The square ball was put into the empty net by Ify Ofoegbu, but the referee said there was a handball and blew for a Brid free-kick

Shortly after, Caulfield switched the ball excellently to opposite winger Ali Aydemir who beat his man and had his cross blocked for a corner.

From the set piece, James Williamson rose highest but had his effort cleared off the line. He also won the header from the rebound, but again was denied by a defender on the goal-line.

Will Sutton almost scored an unbelievable goal when the ball was switched to him after some nice link-up play in the midfield. His mazy run saw him beat three men superbly, but his right-footed strike curled just over.

A few times in the first half, Jake Martindale tried to put pressure on Hampshaw from crosses, causing him to fumble the ball on more than one occasion, though the man in the middle was having none of it, blowing for a foul each time.

It was safe to say that it was a game of two halves, as despite a promising performance from Brid in the first half, they found themselves behind in strange fashion.

James Hitchcock came out of his area for a loose ball, but was beaten to it by Tomas Poole, who chipped the shot stopper, with Lewis not able to clear on the line.

Mike Thompson’s side showed a decent response to going behind, almost equalising from an inswinging corner from the left, but Jack Bulless’ header was glanced agonisingly wide.

A corner sailed over everybody, Lewis Macaskill picked up the ball and beat multiple men before finishing nicely into the bottom right corner.

It was nearly three less than two minutes later. The Brid defence were caught out as Macaskill took the ball round Hitchcock, but Benn Lewis blocked on the line. Bulless then picked up a booking for dissent.

Aydemir won a free-kick next to the left corner flag. It was whipped in but easily claimed by Hampshaw. Unfortunately for Brid, Bulless challenged him, and was shown his second yellow card in as many minutes, the referee saying he had warned the players at half time.

This forced Noah Stokes to shift from holding midfield to centre-back.

Stokes then almost put the ball into his own net when he got a foot in the way of Macaskill’s shot one-on-one.

Though it looked to be going behind, the centre-back put the ball over the goal behind for a corner.

The deal was well and truly sealed with two minutes to go, when poor defending allowed Poole space, who finished well to claim Stocksbridge’s third goal of the game.