AFTER an ill-disciplined loss to Ashmoor last week, Bridgwater’s men failed to learn from their mistakes and slipped to a 2-1 defeat at home to Westbury on Saturday.

It was a fast paced, with Joe Sibley making a start for his first game of the season and Bridgwater started well and nearly got an early goal.

Westbury started playing possession, simple hockey and probing with attack after attack.

Bridgwater held firm until a few short corners later Westbury were ahead.

Bridgwater tried to keep their heads high and kept the ball well, before long Liam Pigden came up with the goal needed to make it clear that Bridgwater weren’t out of it.

With ten minutes left of the half Bridgwater were holding firm and keeping their structure defensively, but some misplaced passes allowed Westbury to counter and score with the ball flying past the keeper’s left hand to take the lead 2-1.

At half-time frustrations were high for Bridgwater, who just needed to do the basics better, work as a team and support.

In the second-half Bridgwater kept the ball better and were attacking as a team, having the ball in the Westbury half for a good ten minutes - switching the ball from left to right and looking for their chance to get the goal.

But it wasn’t to be and the game finished 2-1 to Westbury.

Too much ill-discipline crept in again - with two yellow cards and two green cards - something Bridgwater are going to have to improve as the season goes on.

Bridgwater play Bristol UWE at home next week needing to take the points to get back on track.

Man of the match was Ash Woolmington. Match Ball sponsors - Medikas - www.medikas.co.uk

Bridgwater Ladies fared slightly better, battling to a 1-1 draw with Firebrands.

Visitors Firebrands elected to play a kicking back rather than a goalkeeper and this effectively gave them an extra mobile defender.

Their backline was therefore difficult to breakdown and they did a good job of protecting against penalty corners.

Play switched rapidly from end to end and Firebrands bagged a goal from open play during a spell of sustained pressure.

Bridgwater's game was more attacking in the second-half as their focus was to win some penalty corners, which they did but failed to convert.

A real chance came when a cross the D pass from Charlie Lewis was almost touched in by Jo Bromme.

Bromme was on hand to slot the ball home for the Bridgwater goal after a good build-up moved the ball from midfield to the goal line in three passes.

Play continued to move from end to end but neither team increased their score.

Player of the match was Lucy Burridge.

Bridgwater Ladies II lost 4-2 to White Eagles II away in Tiverton.

It took Bridgwater a good twenty minutes of the match to get used to a very slow, choppy pitch but a great team effort followed.

They were 3-0 down at half-time, but this meant a great recovery in the second half to bring the score back to 4-2.

Player of the match was Kat Male, and special recognition to Bridgwater’s 14 year old junior players, Niamh and Willow, who performed excellently considering they have only played a couple of matches in the senior league.

Next week the ladies 2s are back in Tiverton to play the White Eagles III.

After last week's less than desirable result, Bridgwater Mens III bounced back with a 5-2 victory over Westbury IV.

Jordan Rawles scored twice for Bridgwater, while Marcus Blyth, Will Pope and Steve Turvey completed the scoring.

Against the run of play Westbury scored from a well worked set piece and soon doubled their advantage from a short corner.

It didn’t look good for Bridgwater at this point, but an expertly finished short corner from Marcus Blyth allowed Bridgwater back into the game. Spurred on by this goal a second shortly followed, finished by Will Pope at the back post after a goal mouth scramble.

Continuing from where they left off Bridgwater managed to get three goals in quick succession, including a rare Steve Turvey goal from more than a yard out.

This combined with a quick-fire double from Jordan Rawles - the pick of which was a deft edged finish from a whipped cross, firing into the side of the goal.

Bridgwater defended out the rest of the game well, despite twice going down to ten men.

Bridgwater Mens V suffered an 11-0 defeat at Exeter University VII.

The students really found their rhythm and although Bridgwater’s young players fought valiantly, Exeter Uni proved too strong and scored six in the second half.

Man of the match was Dominic Court.