Bridgwater Ladies 1sts 1, Clifton 3rds 2

BRIDGWATER opened the game with a fast pace putting immediate pressure on Clifton team.

But it wasn’t long before Clifton were into their stride and playing with more urgency than Bridgwater, forcing a run of short corners and resulting in their first goal.

Further Clifton attacks saw a goalmouth scramble and a foot on the line giving them a penalty stroke.

GK Amy Burridge dived but, sadly, the wrong way, and Clifton slotted home their second.

Bridgwater attacked with more purpose in the second half and Kath Briggs got on the end of some strong passes from midfield.

It was persistence from Briggs that brought the deserved Bridgwater goal.

Both teams had further chances but the scoreline remained at 2-1 to Clifton.

Donna Cooper was player of the match.

Taw Valley 3, Bridgwater Ladies 2nd XI 0

BRIDGWATER Ladies II slumped to a 3-0 defeat at Taw Valley in their first league game since November.

The match started at a fair pace with both sides attacking and counter attacking in quick succession.

Megan Weston came close for Bridgwater with a shot that went marginally wide, but it was Taw who drew first blood with a freaky, opportunist goal.

At 1-0 at half time, Bridgwater felt they were still in this game and produced some fine attacks with midfielders Mich Evans and Grace Poham supplying the Bridgwater forwards up front.

Bridgwater’s only short corner saw Julie Morrish’s shot saved but Bridgwater could not capitalise on the rebound.

Some amazing dinky runs from Heather Tinkler deserved an outcome but the luck did not go with Bridgwater today.

A second goal saw Bridgwater fall further behind – but they were not deterred, with Elesi Rider and Clare Wilson battling up the wings to try and force their way into the final third.

Karen Chilcott, Shula Hutter and Becky Oram ran tirelessly trying to pick their way through the Taw defence.

Bridgwater continued to press with Bridget Hedaux and Rachel Higgs pushing forward from defence but eventually Taw snatched a third as Bridgwater over stretched themselves and were caught outnumbered, allowing Taw to score their third of the game.

Joint players of the match were Grace Popham and Heather Tinkler.

Bridgwater 5th XI 0, Chard 3rd XI 6

BRIDGWATER V crashed to a heavy defeat at the hands of table-topping Chard III on Saturday.

From the off Chard pushed Bridgwater back but Bridgwater showed some fight with Harry Rose, Simon Brewer, Steve Morrish, Kev Hicks, Geoff Banham and Mark Hutter at the back all contributing to making Chard’s life difficult in front of goal.

The midfield of Lewis Coad, Harry Jackson, Connor Gillespie and Will Kelly also held firm creating chances for Dave Dosson, Mike Davidge, Jon Brockwell and Tom Syvret.

Bridgwater had the chance to take the lead but Brockwell’s shot was well blocked by a strong Chard defence. Despite battling hard with Chard, Bridgwater’s skill levels weren’t quite up there to match and despite Hicks and Brewer being resolute at the back they couldn’t stop Chard from taking the lead minutes before half-time.

This did take the wind out of the sails of Bridgwater but they were determined to get something back as they had fought hard.

Despite a couple of half chances for Davidge and Brockwell, there wasn’t much getting through a tough Chard defence.

Sadly there was five minutes of madness where Chard scored four times as Bridgwater went to sleep after letting in a sloppy goal.