Report: Bamber Bridge 1-2 Warrington Town

Max Thompson fired home the winner as Warrington Town registered a much-needed win away at Bamber Bridge.

In a tie previously postponed three times due to a waterlogged pitch, the Yellows created plenty of chances on a heavy going surface, with Thompson lashing in the top corner to win it in the 71st minute.

They had earlier, for the third successive game, been pegged back after taking a 1-0 lead, but unlike their previous two games they managed to go again and seal the three points.

New signing Katia Kouyate went straight in to the starting team and Paul Carden’s side started brightly, in what was a fairly open game.

They came close to an early opener through an unlikely source, Bamber Bridge striker Ewan Bange heading against his own post from Jack Doyle’s corner.

Bamber Bridge had a couple of half-chances that went wide before the Yellows were given the chance to take the lead from the penalty spot.

On 36 minutes, Joe Rodwell-Grant cutting inside Nathan Okome and going down, with the referee taking a long look at it and pointing to the spot.

Reece Daly stepped up and fired home through the middle for his seventh goal of the season.

That gave the Yellows impetus and Kouyate spurned a glorious chance to make it two barely two minutes later, the ball falling to him in the box after good work by Rodwell-Grant and Daly but the Barrow loanee fired wide past the onrushing Aidan Dowling.

Bamber Bridge had a couple of moments late in the half and Yellows goalkeeper Luke Hewitson nearly gifted them an opening when he rushed out of his goal and cleared up the touchline straight to Jack Baxter, his shot from range beating everyone in yellow but landing just wide of the post.

As they did in the first half, the Yellows started the second half brightly but just as they had done against Leek on New Year’s Day, they conceded an equaliser nine minutes after half-time.

The lively Jamie Allen released Olly Molloy down the right and he put it on a plate for Emerich Poilly to side-foot home from six yards out.

That led to Bamber Bridge enjoying a good spell of the game without troubling Hewitson, until Rodwell-Grant spun his man on the right and put a teasing cross in that Kouyate couldn’t quite get a clean contact on.

The winning goal came on 71, a cross from Jack Doyle contested by Rodwell-Grant and the loose ball fell to the hard-working Thompson, who fired in to the roof of the net from 10 yards.

As Bamber Bridge chased the game, it opened up further for the Yellows and Daly will have gone home wondering how he didn’t add to his first-half penalty.

With 12 minutes to go, Rodwell-Grant and Thompson linked up to release him through the middle and he blazed over the bar with just the ‘keeper to beat.

At the other end, Ewan Bange, who was twice embroiled in off-the-ball incidents with Troy Bourne, held off Evan Gumbs and fired high and wide, but other than that all Bamber Bridge could muster were set-pieces that came to nothing.

In the last minute of the 90, Daly fired over the bar from 25 yards but then deep into injury time, he charged down Okome at the back and raced in goal, rounded the goalkeeper and then had his shot cleared off the line by Okome, and then saw the rebound blocked on the line by the same player.

It didn’t matter in the end though as the Yellows held on, despite goalkeeper Dowling coming up three times for late set-pieces.

The Yellows are back in action on Saturday away at former manager Mark Beesley’s FC United of Manchester.

Bamber Bridge: Dowling, Abankwah, Lang, Baxter (Benns), Knight-Percival, Okome, Allen, Potts (Churchman), Bange, Molloy (Forbes), Poilly. Unused sub: Bailey.

Warrington Town: Hewitson, Melhado, J Doyle, Vela, Gumbs, Bourne, Rodwell-Grant (Morris), Harris (Butler), Thompson (Murphy), Daly (Lloyd), Kouyate (Green).

Post-match reaction