Bristol Manor Farm 1-1 Sholing

Scorers : Owen Howe 9  /  Brad Targett 20

Date: Saturday 11 February 2023, 3:00pm – Southern League Division 1 South

Venue: The Creek  Attendance: 176

Bristol Manor Farm : Ben John, Mason Winter, Jayden Nielsen, Josh Ford, Steve Kingdon, Lloyd Mills ©, Marcus Day (Harry Lucas 76), Frankie Artus, Owen Howe, Luco Ponsillo (Evander Grubb 83), George Fowler Unused sub : Theo Llewellyn

Red Card : Lee Lashenko (Manager) & Harry Hek (Kitman) 78mins

Sholing : Ryan Gosney, TJ Cuthbertson, Marv McLean, Rob Flooks, Dan Miller, Charlie Wagstaffe (Owen Roundell 72), Brad Targett (Wayne Robinson 68), Byron Mason ©, Dan Mason, Lee Wort, Sami Makhloufi (Jake Cope 65).  Unused subs : Dean Frampton & Ryan Harfield

Bookings : 

It was a 16th game unbeaten for the Boatmen after a scrappy match in Bristol that was lit up by a wondergoal by Brad Targett

Team News : Leon Baker missed out through injury, with Charlie Wagstaffe coming in.

It was an overcast day in Bristol as the game got underway on Manor Farm's multi-sloping pitch next to the train tracks & river.  Sholing got off to a slow start, allowing a shot by the home side that was comfortably claimed by Gosney. However, BMF were in the lead after 9 minutes with a sloppy goal from a Sholing perspective.

Gos sliced a clearance out for a corner and when the ball came in, it was a poor clearance straight to the prolific Owen Howe 15 yards out to fire into the left corner of the goal.

Sholing's efforts on goal went harmlessly wide, a flick header by Targett and then an angled shot by TJ, but on 20 minutes the game was lit up by a piece of magic.  Marv's throw-in from the left wing was chested by Dan Mason into the path of BRAD TARGETT to hit a volley from 20 yards that screamed into the far top corner.  A quite brilliant goal.

Boatmen were in the ascendency for the rest of the first half, Lee Wort fed Dan Mason on the edge of the box to get off a shot that the keeper saved. After good work by Targett to get to the byline and pick out Sami on the edge of the box, he decided against shooting, squaring to Wort on his left, but Lee slipped as he struck the ball, so it was a comfortable save for the keeper.

The BMF keeper appeared to kick the back of Byron's leg following a corner, which got a response from the skipper as he barged Ben John over and the keeper went to ground in dramatic fashion. The referee had a long chat with both and decided against any cautions. HT 1-1

Was little in the way of goalmouth action throughout the second half, but overall, Manor Farm were to have the most pressure and better chances.   Although, Dan Mason had his head in his hands on 59 minutes when he spun at the near post and fired a shot that hit the outside of the upright/side netting.

BMF won a freekick on the edge of the Boatmen box, but Howe hit his shot into the wall and then headed over when the ball came back in.   Gosney then tipped a header over the angle of post & crossbar as the home side built some momentum.

Dave Diaper made three subs to try to inject some more energy into our forward play and one of those subs, Owen Roundell, rose well to flick a header goalwards, but John saved.

The game was halted for a few minutes on the 80 min mark when the linesman appeared to be involved with the BMF bench.  Unclear to the exact reasons, but was severe enough for the manager and kit man to both receive straight reds from the ref.  As often happens at this level, the manager just hopped over the fence and stayed next to the dugout.

Sholing didn't really look like grabbing a winner, but Manor Farm should have done in the 95th minute. A player cut to the byline, advanced into the box and fed a teammate, who 10 yards out with the whole goal to aim at, skied his effort over the bar.   FT 1-1

Dave Diaper : "We were well below par today and the standards we set ourselves, so from that point of view, we are disappointed. However, it’s a precious point and it could of been worse as Bristol Manor Farm missed a golden opportunity to win it in the dying moments of the game.

We are normally free flowing, but today we were laboured in the build up, but as usual I can’t fault the players effort and to come away unbeaten from a below average performance was a real positive."

Next Game : Sholing v Hamworthy United - Saturday 18 February 3pm - Southern League

Photos courtesy of EspieJaz, swipe to view pics :