Bamber Bridge 3 -1 Leek Town
Bamber Bridge came into the game off the back of a 1-1 draw with Blyth Spartans in midweek, whilst Leek Town had been out of action for a fortnight after having their match postponed, after most of last week’s fixtures were affected by heavy rainfall.
Leek sat in 20th place, whilst Brig sat two places above the relegation zone in 17th.
Goalkeeper James Pradic was included in Preston North End’s matchday squad vs West Bromwich Albion following Freddie Woodman’s suspension from a bizzare Red Card in midweek, this forced Brig to bring in youngster Harvey Bardsley from Blackpool on a one-month loan.
The first half offered opportunities for both sides, but it was Leek who had the better chances in the opening period.
In the quarter of an hour, Tyreece Onyeka found space down the right side and beat Liam Brockbank, Onyeka then fired a low cross into the box and Hayden Campbell met it at the near post but his first time shot was blazed over the crossbar.
10 minutes later, Leek had another excellent opportunity after Campbell passed the ball into Max Woodcock who took a touch inside the penalty area to set himself up to shoot but his shot was saved well by the debutant Bardsley.
Brig’s first opportunity came after Taylor Bowen flashed a ball across the face of goal from the right side of the penalty area, but no one was there to get on the end of it.
Just after the half hour mark, Brig’s Callum Leigh low drilled strike from 30 yards arrowed just wide of the post.
Shortly before half time, Leek had a golden opportunity to take the lead.
A long ball over the top in behind the Brig defence allowed Campbell to run through on goal and he squared it across for Woodcock, his touch took the ball away from goal, he cut back inside and laid the ball off for the onrushing William Reeves inside the box but his strike was tipped brilliantly onto the bar by Bardsley.
The resulting corner was whipped towards Nathan Okome who headed towards goal but his shot was blocked.
After an entertaining first half, the teams went into the break at a stalemate.
The restart saw Bamber Bridge make a half time change with Lewis Hey replacing Chris Churchman.
Leek had a great opportunity to take the lead just before an hour played when Tom Scully’s free kick met the head of Okome but his header went just wide of the post.
Moments later, Jack Baxter opened the scoring after a low drilled shot from 25 yards out was too powerful for Dino Visser to keep out and Brig took a 1-0 lead.
With 68 minutes on the clock, Leek had their equaliser not too long after going behind when it seemed as though Brig were going to double their lead.
Nathan Mercer found space to break away and play Michael Potts into Leek’s half with no defender in sight, Potts was eventually caught up and put under pressure, losing the ball in the process.
Straight up the other end, Onyeka found space on the right side to cross to the back post where Campbell was there to head home for the visitors and get the Staffordshire based side back on level terms.
It was raining goals at the SFC Stadium as Brig restored their lead almost immediately when Lewis Hey’s whipped cross towards the back post was missed by Visser and headed away but only to Brockbank whose controlled diving header found the bottom corner.
Brig were in dreamland as they had their third when Lewis Hey was brought down by goalkeeper Visser inside the penalty area, the referee pointed to the spot and Mark Cullen made no mistake in converting into the keeper’s bottom right corner from 12 yards, making it three goals in five minutes.
The madness pretty much stopped there and Brig cruised to a 3-1 win, moving them up to 15th place.
Bamber Bridge Manager Jamie Milligan says next week’s game away at Prescot Cables will be ‘a tough game’.
“I watched their game back, It’s going to be a tough game they’re always at it, always make it hard for you.
“So we’re going to need to match that 100%, its a tough place to go and get a result Prescot I played there myself so we’re going to need to be a lot better than we were today.”
Match reporter: Morgan Bennion (@MBennionSjourno)
