BSTFC: The Season so Far

March 12th, 2013

As we come into what is suppose to be SPRING with its zero temperatures, we take a look how local football club Bradley Stoke Town FC  have been performing on and off the field.

Only in recent weeks have the Bradley Stoke sides started being able to compete in matches again after a long hard autumn and winter of constantly postponed matches.  Although the players’ resilience shined through as members of the squad such as Ben Osborne and Dan Baker organised 5 a side tournaments at the local all weather pitches.  These competitions kept the players fit and helped maintain a competitive edge while Savages Wood pitches were either frozen, covered in snow or under an inch of water!

BSTFC is a very social club and, as with every year, there have been a number of social events over the winter months.  The Club said goodbye to long serving player Matthew Corney with a big leaving night out as he was about to travel to Australia and survive out there for at least a year…  Or so was thought as he was back with the club within 8 days!!!!  He must have missed the lads massively!  The annual Christmas Party was organised by social secretary  Brad Clark and involved a meal at a Casino in the centre before moving on to a few watering holes.  The most recent event was a Race Night held at the Community Centre (lovingly referred to as the Hornets Nest), organised by James Collis-Pritchard.  There was a good turn out from all players and a good £300 was raised for the Club through the event.  The end of season tour has also been announced which will involve the Club visiting Manchester.

Now to on the pitch!  The 1st Team didn’t play at all between the end of November until the end of January.  The first game back saw that some rust had built up on the team over the winter with a 2-2 result against Seymour Reserves.  However, after another postponement the team came back stronger when they managed a draw against 2nd placed side De Vays and haven’t looked back by picking up impressive wins again Portville Warriors and Talbot Knowle.  With the win against Portville being voted “Performance of the week” on the local sports website Bristol-Soccerworld. Jon Welsh summed up the last couple of months with the following words, “After a frustrating start to the season with injuries the first team  have slowly gelled and become a difficult unit to beat.  Having been  promoted a division this season it was always going to be hard but  early good performances were not reflected in the number of points  gained.  Since November the 1sts have only been beaten once and this  is down to a settled side and a more compact team formation.  The team  have beaten some of the top teams so the potential for success is  there.  If the team can attain a top five finish this year then it  will be a good first year and a solid base on which to build.”

The Reserves (who are sponsored by Bradley Stoke Matters!) have started picking up the points too. After a 3-1 loss against bottom side Brislington Cricketers at the start of January, the Reserves are now unbeaten in their last 4 matches.  Including the high scoring 7-1 win against Talbot Knowle United which saw veteran striker Carl O’Connell bagging himself 4 goals.  Still with a number of matches ahead of them, the Reserves can actually make a late push to get themselves into a promotion winning position.  Both co-Managers Ben Pearce and James Collis-Pritchard are confident that this side can build on the confidence gained from the recent run to continue the good form till the end of the season.

The A Team have been an unpredictable side this season and this has been the same case over the last few months.  In the last few matches the co-Managers Mark Wilkes and Chris Lassett haven’t known what performance their team will produce.  A great example of this is the two matches in which they have had to play bottom side Yate A’s who until the away game had not claimed a point.  However, a poor performance from the A’s saw them only managed a 3-3 draw after being 3-0 down.  Then this weekend when playing the same side they produced a confident display and thrashed Yate 4-1.  They hope to see some better performances to end the season on a high and re group ready for next season’s challenge.

The B Team have continued to put in good performances and yet not got the rewards in the form of the results.  In the last couple of weeks they have seen defeats against the top two sides by just the odd goal when manager Steve Kerton has felt 3 points could have been collected.  Although the signs are good for the B Team who have a very young and developing side.  There are a number of players in the team showing that they can progress up the squad hierarchy and  Steve Kerton said “The future of the club looks so promising as the development squad is improving faster than we could ever have imagined. ”  

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