Southern League Division One S&W

Bridgwater Town 1 Marlow 0

BRIDGWATER Town climbed out of the bottom two with a hard-fought victory over fellow strugglers Marlow on an emotional day at Fairfax Park.

The match was preceded by a minute’s applause for reserve team manager Luke Buckingham, who passed away last week following a fight with Leukaemia.

Charlie White scored the only goal of the game on 20 minutes to fire Town to a vital win, while older brother Josh put in an inspired display.

The game didn’t start until 3.37pm due to traffic congestion and the late arrival of the visitors.

The early manoeuvres were a bit scrappy but the Robins settled better.

However the first clear sight of goal came Marlow’s way.

A clever back heel from Jordan Brown freed Stephen Peacock for a clear run on goal - Jake Viney came out to narrow the angle but it was surprising that the tall striker placed his shot to the right of the goal.

Just two minutes later, the Robins were celebrating what proved to be the decisive goal.

Conor O’Sullivan’s cross to the far post cleared everybody except the onrushing Charlie White.

His downward header from five yards hit the target and the Robins were ahead.

Peacock’s drive to the near post was easily saved by Viney and just before half-time, Ross McNab should have doubled the lead.

From a similar position to Charlie White he sent his downward header wide of the right post.

The early exchanges of the second-half were mostly notable for an escalation of tensions with Marlow’s players in particular regularly at odds with the officials.

However they stirred themselves after 51 minutes when good interplay between Peacock and Brown enabled the latter to shoot towards the near post.

The alert Viney blocked that one.

The Robins were conceding possession too easily and inviting Marlow to attack them, but some rashness from captain Chris Ovenden set the visitors back on 72 minutes, when he jumped into a tackle with two feet off the ground and he had to be sent off.

The last goal chance was cleverly created by Devontae Romeo who jinked past a couple of challenges but he pushed his shot across the face of the goal and outside of the far post.

This was a great day for the White family with Charlie scoring the goal whilst big brother Josh was the game’s outstanding player.

Viney, Adams (Byrne 87), O’Sullivan, Mountford, Palmer, J White, Wadham, Towler, McNab (Sinnott 89), Chamberlain, C White (Fitzsimmons 59).