BRANTHAM ATHLETIC 2

AFC SUDBURY 1

Pre-season friendly

BRANTHAM began their pre-season campaign with a deserved victory against Ryman League opposition.

Every one of their players showed up well and worked hard for Paul Skingley’s side.

However, they suffered an early blow after losing the influential Simon Mann.

He had to go off after a player stood on his ankle but, up to that point, had made some top-class tackles to deny his opponents.

Both sides had early chances, with Charlie Gilbert and Teste Mallardo testing Brantham keeper Ryan Bedingfield.

Brantham’s Michael Brothers was pulling the strings in midfield, urging his team on and playing some top-class through balls for his front men to latch on to.

Brothers broke through and a strike from just outside the area beat the keeper – only for a defender to clear his shot off the line.

Sudbury pushed men forward whenever they could but found it hard to get anything past a hard-tackling Brantham defence.

When they did, Bedingfield denied them with some good saves.

With both sides creating chances, Sudbury broke the deadlock when Mallardo latched on to a good through ball and gave Bedingfield no chance from close range.

Brantham upped their game and a good move started deep in their half saw the ball played through for Ollie Mann.

As he made his run into the area, he was brought down and the referee pointed to the spot.

Mann made no mistake with a hard shot into the corner to bring things level.

Brantham made some changes, bringing on the fast-running Ben Deacon and tricky winger Jamie Cole.

Straight away, a good through ball from Mann saw Deacon strike a hard, low effort that forced a great save from the Sudbury keeper.

Cole’s ability to run at defences caused problems and it was one such raid that led to Brantham’s winner.

The ball was played through for Cole.

He made ground before playing a perfect pass into the area for poacher Deacon to latch on to and make it 2-1.

Sudbury kept pushing men forward but found it hard to get through a hard-tackling Brantham defence.

Both Jack Sibbons and skipper Matt Travis made some timely tackles to deny them.

Brantham brought on keeper Paddi Hawkins for the latter part of the game and he made a couple of top-class stops to keep it 2-1.