Whitstable Town 1 Three Bridges 3: Bridges grab away win

Despite being bottom of the table, But Town looked the better side for much of the first half, although they huffed and puffed and rarely gave debutant keeper Elliott Flack much concern.

Indeed, the only real test he had in that first half came following a piece of trickery by Kieron Campbell that ended with a deflected shot by Connor Heffernan that was held well by Flack.

Dan Eason at the other end did well to push away a Tony Garrod shot when Sammy MacVicar played the ball through, while Ben Godfrey’s header from Mark Pulling’s superb cross was well held.

But after 37 minutes Godfrey planted a header firmly into the far right corner following a good return ball from the ever industrious Matt Whitehead.

Two minutes later though Bridges suffered a setback when Drew Cooney had to leave the field with a shoulder injury.

Such is a goalkeeper’s fate that one mistake can be crucial, and so it proved five minutes into the second half when Flack spilled a cross and Gary Mickleborough pounced to equalise from close-range.

But this seemed to wake up the visitors, who then began to exploit the gaps that were steadily growing in Whitstable’s defence.

Godfrey had a shot well blocked, but after 64 minutes Garrod played the ball wide to MacVicar, who showed his strength by holding off his opponent and guiding the ball beyond Eason into the far left corner of the net.

Garrod then rattled the upright and John Lansdale was just wide from a free-kick, whilst another substitute Ljubisa Palic forced Eason to scramble the ball round the post.

Palic was a constant threat and twice he saw efforts blocked, but in the final minute Bridges made the game safe when Lansdale took a return pass from Saul Otusu to coolly run on and beat Eason comfortably.

Bridges: K.Flack; D.Cooney (J.Lansdale, 39); M.Daniel; D.Mobsby; N.Brake; J.Crellin; M.Pulling (S.Otusu, 59); B.Godfrey; S.MacVicar; T.Garrod (L.Palic, 72); M.Whitehead

Unused subs: M.Casselman; O.Barry

Attendance: 163

Aerotron Man of the Match: Jamie Crellin