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Bridon Ropes 0-0 Canterbury City
Bridon Ropes 0-0 Canterbury City

It remains all as you were at the top of the table as first placed City and ninth paced Bridon Ropes battled out a goalless draw at the Meridian Sports Ground.

None of the chasing pack were able to take advantage of City dropping points as the games involving three of the top five that played also ended in draws.

Sheppey Sports though did manage a comprehensive win at home to Staplehurst Monarchs – City’s cup opponents on Tuesday – and that means they are the latest side to have City’s points tally in sight with their four games in hand!

Back to this game though and it was a competitive, closely fought encounter with plenty going on but neither side able to break the deadlock.

City had the first two chances when Sean Aromolaran saw his effort blocked before Mo Cham almost put City ahead. Breaking through the middle, he bustled and muscled his way through before firing for the bottom corner. From my angle it was sneaking just inside the post but Bridon keeper Cemal Osman dived down and somehow managed to get his wrong hand to it and push it away and wide – an excellent save.

Taylor Bowley then struck a half-volley over the City bar from the edge of the box before Cham twice spearheaded promising attacks. The first ended when he was sent sprawling just outside the box with City unable to prosper from the resultant free-kick, while the second saw him get a shot off that was blocked before he reacted the quickest to hit the rebound goalwards only to see Osman stand strong and save.

Bridon responded well and had a couple of good heading opportunities go wide – Joe Quinnear and Olusegun Akinwunmi both unable to open the scoring. Minutes later the two almost combined though to put Bridon ahead when Quinnear’s free-kick fell to Akinwunmi in the box but his whipped in first-time shot also failed to find the target.

Although hard-fought, the game was a little open at times and chances came and went at both ends. Cham thundered an effort wide of the angle from the opposite corner of the box, while City keeper Dan Smith dived down well to his right to keep out Quinnear’s thirty-yard free-kick that was arrowed just inside the post. Zack Jobe almost latched on to a loose back-pass but Osman was quick to see the danger and sped out just in time to clear with inches to spare.

A busy end to the half, including an exchange of free-kicks, failed to trouble the scorers either and the teams eventually went off to the relative warmth of the dressing rooms at nil-nil.

The second-half continued in a similar competitive vein and just minutes after the restart City almost took the lead. Jobe saw his fierce shot beat Osman but rattle the upright with the ball then bouncing out and hitting a defender before rebounding back towards goal. Luck was on Bridon’s side though as Osman was just quick enough to recover and grab the ball just before it could roll into the net!

Jobe then saw another shot blocked before Akinwunmi had his third sight of City’s goal but couldn’t keep his effort down – firing it wide of the angle when seemingly well placed. A nice build-up by City ended with Cham seeing a low shot blocked out for a corner from which Harry Sikirwayi saw a long effort scoot wide. Jamie Obianigwe then fed Cham, but the striker was forced wide and Osman was able to get down well to deny him before Luka Radojevic headed wide from a City corner.

Both teams were chasing for an opener and City were then indebted to Smith for an absolutely outstanding save to keep the game goalless. A cross was swept in from the Bridon right and somehow threaded its way across the six-yard area and through to Rhonan Dunphy two yards out – having already bypassed the keeper. It looked a certain goal but in a flash, Smith bravely flung himself back across and in front of the Bridon player completely smothering the shot and then as Dunphy tried to bundle the loose ball home from even closer in, the keeper denied him again yanking the ball away to safety from almost off the goal-line – it was a brilliant double save!

With a little over a quarter of an hour to go, the game took a potential turn when Bridon were reduced to ten men with the sending off of Paris Jackson. He was probably a bit unfortunate to be sent off with the referee only seeing the last bit of a six and two threes tussle with a City player and maybe if he’d seen all of it, a different outcome would have been reached.

That incident just riled up the hosts and the noise levels soared on and off the pitch as they got a touch scrappy for a few minutes with skipper Quinnear quickly seeing a yellow card for kicking the ball away at the award of another  City free-kick, from which Luke Illsley’s header under pressure, was safely gathered by Osman.

There was then a brief pause in the match as a fox nonchalantly wandered across the pitch – suddenly appearing out of the gloom and from behind the Bridon goal and for a few moments, we really did have a ‘fox in the box’!

City meanwhile were retaining the ball well trying to find a gap with their man advantage and they almost found it when a misplaced home header bounced up tantalisingly in Cham’s arc but the ball seemed to hit the turf and spin away from him and fell kindly for Osman to calmly retrieve.

Unfortunately, City’s man advantage soon disappeared when Radojevic talked his way into the sin bin and suddenly it was now ten-v-ten. It was clear both teams wanted the win and both could have got it in a frenetic and frantic last period which included almost ten minutes of added time.

Firstly, City’s goal had a lucky escape when Quinnear’s whipped in right-sided free-kick flew right across the box somehow missing everybody and then as it came through the throng of players it was hastily shovelled out of harm’s way having looked more likely to have ended up in the back of the net than be cleared!

That was then followed by a close call at the other end when substitute Khavarn Williams drew another decent, diving save from Osman after a scintillating run from just inside halfway right into the heart of the Bridon box – hurdling one attempted lunging challenge and shimmying around a couple more.

With the clock running down and City briefly back up to eleven, neither side could find a winner despite a lot of endeavour and effort to do so and in the end, a draw was probably just about a fair result on the day…

Final score: Bridon Ropes 0 Canterbury City 0


 
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