by Jordan Jones & Bryn Goodall
THE University of Bristol 4th maintained their unbeaten start to the league season, as they consigned USW 3rd to a second league defeat.
Jamie Barnes, Ryan Tulley and Sam Ridley were on the scoresheet for the away side, with Cole Greenhaf scoring the only goal for USW.
Each side scored once in the first half before Bristol scored two goals in the final quarter of the game.
USW midfielder Callum Massey had two chances early on. Firstly, Mael Evans set him up just outside the box, but his low driven effort went wide.
Massey then put over a free-kick over the bar from just outside the box, after Mikey Wicherek was fouled, with Bristol’s Callum Whyte picking up a yellow card.
Sam Ridley had a chance for the away side, but his effort was wide of Danni Jones’ goal. Left-winger Felix Hanamm then had a glorious opportunity inside the box, but he blazed his effort over the bar.
On the half-hour mark, Bristol’s Conor Moran forced Jones into a save at his near post. Moments later, after a spell of dominance, Bristol scored the opening goal. Sam Ridley drilled his effort into the corner, to give the away side the lead.
Rob Bailey’s side drew level a few minutes later, having not really had many clear goalscoring opportunities. Callum Massey played a through ball to Cole Greenhaf, Risca United attacker beat a statuesque Bristol defence, to tuck his effort past Felix Leon.
In the last act of the half, Slawek Janowski tried to chip Jones in the USW goal, but the home sides goalkeeper collected it, ensuring the two sides went in level at the break.
Half-time 1-1
The second half started with very little action in the opening stages, with both teams probing each other’s defence tentatively.
The first real incident came on the 52nd minute when captain Jackson Huxley threw himself in front of a Bristol shot resulting in injury to the USW player, he was down receiving treatment for around five minutes.
After the injury, both sides had opportunities to pull ahead in the game and it became an end-to-end encounter for the next ten minutes of the match.
On the 69th minute USW started to take control of the game. A corner was taken from the right which was met by Huxley and was excellently tipped around the post by the Bristol goalkeeper.
From the resulting corner, Huxley rose highest again and this time was denied by the bar, the ball fell to a Bristol defender and the ball was cleared.
On the 77th minute, against the run of play, Bristol took the lead through their number 13 who came off the bench to slot past USW’s Danni Jones and make it 2-1 to Bristol.
On the 82nd minute, USW’s Arran Finlayson limped off in open play, leaving USW with 10 players on the pitch. Bristol capitalised on this when the ball was crossed into the box into a space Finlayson would have been occupying and was smashed in by Bristol’s Jamie Barnes to make it 3-1.
USW threw everything they had at Bristol for the closing stages of the game but it was not enough as the final whistle blew and the game finished USW 3rd 1-3 UOB 4th.
Incident log
4 – UOB’S Callum Whyte shown yellow card
32 – GOAL! University of Bristol’s Sam Ridley (0-1)
39 – GOAL! USW’s Cole Greenhaf. (1-1)
63 – UOB’S Conor Moran shown yellow card
64 – UOB’s Sam Ridley replaced by Ryan Tulley
72 – Lorenzo Amorosino replaces George Chappell
77 – GOAL! University of Bristol’s Ryan Tulley. (1-2)
81 – GOAL! University of Bristol’s Jamie Barnes. (1-3)
Star Player: Jackson Huxley – USW
