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Saturday 20th
August 2011
FA CUP Extra Prem Round
BRIDGNORTH TOWN 6 - 0 ELLESMERE RANGERS
Former Bridgnorth Town boss Lee Mills made
a welcome return to the Crown Meadow following his departure in the summer, but any FA Cup celebrations went up in smoke as
Mark Clyde’s men entertained the home crowd to a record breaking performance.
Bridgnorth kicked off the 130th
FA Cup competition inspired I guess by Bill Shankley with each starting player allocated a different line
up number than usual, in the hope of causing confusion to the opposition. (I have to admit, the last time I witnessed this
was at Workington, when under former Liverpool player Trevor Storton Bradford fielded a similar line up. Following a successful win, Trevor later explained to me that Shanks had used to adopt this method on a
number of occasions).
The game was 18 minutes old when following a cross from the left by Joe Smith, Town were awarded a
penalty when Kevin Renshaw was judged to have handled the ball. I thought it was harsh but that didn’t prevent club
captain stepping up to fire the ball past Ellesmere keeper Sam Jones.
Eight minutes later, the visitors were reduced to 10 men
when Rob Dean received his marching orders, following a blatant foul on last man Pike who only had Jones in his slights.
This
was the turning point of the game, and Bridgnorth took advantage and punished the Meremen hard – to inflict what is
now their heaviest defeat in the competition.
Joe Salt opened up his goal scoring account with a brilliant 15 yard strike which
Jones, despite getting his hands to the ball he couldn’t prevent from finding the back of the net.
Phil Groves, killed the
game in stoppage time with his 3rd goal in as many games as Town marched into a three goal half time lead much
to the delight of the crowd of 102.
The second half was just two minutes old, when Karl Griffiths made it 4 –
0. Poor defending in the Rangers goalmouth saw Griffiths take control of a loose ball, and as he brought the ball down, you could read
where it was destined with Griffiths placing the ball into the corner of the net.
Phil Grove’s second goal of the game on 62 minutes
was the first time in 23 years that Town had ever recorded five goals in the FA Cup game and that was away at Long Eaton United.
Within
a minute of scoring Groves was substituted with former Town man Kevin Buxton making a welcome return to the club.
But the clubs record book
was re-written by Lewis Welch just before the final whistle when he found the back of the net with Town’s sixth goal. A great performance
on the day, which will now be remembered and recorded as the clubs highest ever win in the FA Cup.
1
– 0 (19) JASON PIKE (PEN)
2
– 0 (33) JOE SALT
3
– 0 (45) PHILLIP GROVES
4
– 0 (47) KARL GRIFFITHS
5
– 0 (62) PHILLIP GROVES
SUB (62) BUXTON / GROVES
SUB (68) HEEKES / JONES
SUB (71) BRADBURN / HURDLEY
6 - 0 (90) LEWIS WELCH
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Last League Encounter - Tuesday 15th March 2011
Bridgnorth
0 - 1 Ellesmere (Gary Meredith) - Attendance 52
Town's playing record against their county
neighbours is very poor with just one win from the past five league and cup encounters.
The last league meeting
was back in March when a poor crowd of just 52 witnessed the visitors celebrate a league double over their Crown Meadow counterparts
following a 39th minute goal by Gary Meredith.
For Town, March was a miserable month with just 7 points collected
from seven games.
Town: Nash, Rogers, Hurdley D Griffiths,
Hartlebury, Edwards, Evans, Golding, Rich, Chapman, K Griffiths. Subs Used: S Gregory, J King.
Ellesmere: Jones, Cathral, Fletcher, Ford, Farr, Rowlands, Leonard, Towers, Barton, Meredith,
Renshaw. Subs Used: O'Rielly, Beech.
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