Competition

Date

Saturday 28th August 2010

Smiles all round for Collier's Swindon Supermarine

Courtesy of Sam Morshead » Swindon Advertiser

It’s smiles all round at the Webb's Wood Stadium after Nick Stanley’s 34th-minute penalty gave Supermarine their first win of the Zamaretto Premier campaign, against Bedford Town, to leave boss Mark Collier grinning.

Stanley’s spot-kick, awarded after a foul on Leigh Henry, may have proven to be the thinnest of dividing lines between the sides, but Collier was delighted with all aspects of his team’s display. And he said the result, combined with Wednesday night’s 0-0 draw with Chesham United, had sent a bolt of confidence through the dressing room.

“It’s definitely given everyone a smile of their faces,” said Collier. “That’s two games, two clean sheets and four points so we’re pretty happy with that return. “Clean sheets and victories breed big confidence in the players, and they know that we can compete and win games now at this level. “It was a very good performance and I’m very pleased.”

After shutting out Chesham in midweek, Marine’s backline stifled their opponents once again on Saturday allowing only a handful of chances, whilst at the other end of the pitch Steve Cook and Stanley gave the Bedford defence serious problems throughout. Cook could have had two goals before a quarter of the match had been played, but the front man narrowly failed to connect with Stanley’s cross on 13 minutes and then fired a header straight at visiting keeper Ian Brown eight minutes later.

The hosts had the lead 11 minutes before the break, however, as Stanley slotted home from 12 yards, and falling behind seemed to spark Bedford into life. But the Marine defence stood strong during the early moments of the second period, rendering Mark Scott in goal a virtual spectator, before Chris Taylor almost doubled their advantage - his strike was well turned over the bar by Brown.

Bedford continued to push, however, and with five minutes of normal time remaining Scott came to the home team’s rescue, saving low to his right from Craig Rydeheard.

Collier hopes the victory is a launch-pad from which the South Marston outfit’s season can really take off and it means the side go into today’s away derby clash with Cirencester Town in confident mood. “It’s always difficult winning football matches in this league, but we’ve shown we can mix it,” he said. “Our work rate was excellent, we were nice and competitive and compact and always a threat going forward. “Hopefully we can build on this. “Obviously we need to take some more of the chances, but keeping the clean sheet is the key to getting results.”

 

Report from a Bedford perspective

Audio post match report from manager Ady Williams