|
Match Report Bedford Town 1 Swindon Supermarine 0 British Gas Business Football League Southern League Premier Division
Saturday 04.04.2009 By Ned Payne (Swindon Advertiser) Marine need a boost Tony Battersby’s penalty just after the hour, following Enoch Boateng’s challenge on the home side’s Ian Draycott, condemned the Hunts Copse men to a 1-0 loss at Bedford Town - their third reverse in five days.
After a superb victory over Halesowen nine days ago, Collier’s men were downed 2-1 by Stourbridge on Monday, then 4-0 at home by Hitchin on Wednesday and this latest defeat left them 10 points adrift of a play-off spot, albeit with as many as three games in hand on rivals above them.
Collier admits his side’s early-season heroics in both league and cups may be taking their toll and with another three games in six days coming up, their task is not about to get any easier. But he said: “We’ve just got to get on with it. We’ve had a bad week but we need to get back to winning ways.
“With all the games in a short space of time, we’re having to change the team around quite a bit. But we could do with a little scrappy 1-0 win and that will get us going again.’’ Collier had few complaints about the performance at Bedford, faulting only his side’s finishing. He added: “In the first half we were particularly impressive. We had lots of possession and two or three good chances but unfortunately we didn’t take them.
“The all-round performance certainly warranted a bit more. It just didn’t go our way.’’ Leigh Henry missed Saturday’s defeat with a sickness bug.
|
|
From a Bedford perspective... A second-half penalty was enough to give the Eagles their tenth home win of the season against Swindon Supermarine. Recent injuries have depleted Lee Howarth’s squad, but it has given opportunities to such as Callum Lewis, Mike Ewang, Stacey Field and Ashley Deverell and they have all learned from their experience.
Swindon were clearly still smarting from their 4-0 home defeat to Hitchin on Wednesday and yesterday’s performance gave no hint that such a result was possible. Stuart Wall cleared off the line after two minutes when Joe Harris was allowed to run and shoot and it took the Eagles 13 minutes to mount their first attack. After 24 minutes Justin McKay curled a free-kick just past the post with Mike Armitt at full stretch and shortly afterwards the Eagles keeper was smartly out to deny Ash Edenborough.
Right at the end of the half, Jamie Gould put Graham Clark through and his 20-yard shot was only half-saved, but Ian Draycott could not get proper contact on the loose ball. Jon Darby did not reappear after the break following a facial injury. Once again Clark had to change position moving from midfield to right back in a defensive line of three.
Swindon played good one-touch football on a tricky surface and, with a game in hand, can still make the play-offs. The decisive goal came after 61 minutes when Tony Battersby collected the ball on the halfway line and played a fine pass up to Draycott, who turned Enoch Boateng inside out before being fouled in the penalty area.
Battersby scored from the spot sending the keeper the wrong way, as Eagles took the lead against the run of play. Solid defending was then required by Bedford to maintain their lead.
|
