MacWhirter Welsh League Division One

Friday, 14th August 2009

at The Marston’s Stadium, Port Talbot

Afan Lido 1-3 Bridgend Town

Goalscorers

Afan Lido

Craig Baker (80 minutes)

Bridgend Town

Raith Plant (35 minutes) (p)

Anthony Waters (57 minutes)

Atif Bashir (60 minutes)

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The new MacWhirter Welsh Football League season started with this Friday night derby as Afan Lido hosted ambitious Bridgend Town at The Marston’s Stadium. Winger Rameer Outlaw was the early stand out player for Bridgend as his pace pressured the Lido defence from the start but he was matched at the other end by new Lido signing Nathan White making his Welsh League debut after signing from Cardiff League side Grange Albions as both sides went in search of the opening goal. Bridgend soon began to control proceedings with former Lido defender Ian Turner providing a number of telling crosses although goalkeeper Brendan Cropley, returning to the club for a second time, was more than capable of preventing the visitors taking the lead. A foul in the area by Lido’s Jonathan Hood on 35 minutes offered experienced striker Raith Plant the opportunity to hand his side the lead and he made no mistake from the spot. Both sides again came out with a positive attitude in the second half as the game became increasingly competitive and soon spilled over as Lido defender Leigh Shrimpton was shown a straight red card on 53 minutes for a high tackle. Within seven minutes of the sending off Bridgend had earned a 3-0 lead thanks to goals from Anthony Waters and Atif Bashir as a rattled Lido struggled to compete. The introduction of substitute Carl Payne improved the home side and he had a fine effort wrongly ruled out for offside on 70 minutes. On 75 minutes another poor decision saw a strike from White disallowed again for offside as Bridgend began to sit back on their lead and Lido became increasingly incensed with the actions of the match officials. Lido continued to pressure the visitors defence and did score through substitute Craig Baker on 80 minutes but Bridgend settled back down and defended solidly for the remainder of the match to claim the win.

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