Phobia

Bristol Manor Farm  2  Evesham United  1

Southern League – Division One South

I’ll be brutally honest, Bristol scares me.

To be more precise, I’ve got a phobia of bridges, especially driving over them. The Thelwall Viaduct on the M6 in Cheshire increases my anxiety levels every time I journey across it, and in more recent years on our trips to Cornwall and Devon, as you drop down the M5 to the Avonmouth area of Bristol and see the mighty bridge in front of you, I can feel the bricks forming.

But, not only that, if you head into Bristol and decide to cross the Avon further downstream you get the Clifton Suspension Bridge, I’ve never driven over it, but if I did I’d probably need a lie down afterwards.

To try and conquer my fear of the bridge, I did something both brave and stupid in equal measures a few years ago. I had a day off work and decided to head to Cefn Druids. Now, not too far from Cefn Mawr is the Pontcysyllte Aquaduct, a massive 38 metre high structure crossing the Trevor Basin, and you can walk across it, with the narrow boats running alongside.

To paint the picture further, it’s a bit like this. The rail is on one side of the path, and the canal is on the other, but on the canal side of the bridge, there’s nothing, it’s just a sheer drop. No way in this World would you get me across it on a boat, but I decided to walk it.

I managed it, I never let go of the railing, I’d lost all feeling in my legs by the time I’d got to the other side, and when a family approached me in the opposite direction, no way was I letting go, they were going to have to go round me. When I got to the other side I then had to get back, with my weaker arm holding the barrier. Apparently you get superb views of the Acrefair Youth football ground which sits below the bridge, but I don’t recall it, I don’t think I looked downwards!

Some years later, with the fellow Hatt’s in tow we did it again, it didn’t feel so bad this time, but trust me, I won’t be rushing back for the hat-trick.

So, that’s why I’ve kind of swerved Bristol over the years, I worked out that I’ve been four times to watch a football match, and on every occasion I managed to avoid a bridge. I saw Derby at Bristol City in the early nineties, I saw a pre-season friendly at Bristol Rovers a couple of years back, and then I once did a double, watching Almondsbury Town in the morning, and Mangotsfield United in the afternoon, but they were both very much on the bridge free North side of the City.

But, with Bristol Manor Farm being elevated to Step 4 status in 2017, having won the Western League, they fell onto the Hatt radar, and as luck would have it, they had a Friday night game on a day I’d got booked off work, result!

So, what’s the story with Bristol Manor Farm then? A relatively young club formed in 1960, they played local football before joining the Western League in 1977. Within six seasons they’d won promotion to the top flight, and bar a couple of seasons in the early noughties, they remained there ever since. Having finished second, third and fourth in the three previous seasons, a deserved championship was won in 2016-17 under the guidance of Lee Lashenko, and they did it losing just two games.

A mid-table finish last season was a very creditable effort, and the club quite rightly proclaims itself as the third club in the City, a title they battle Mangotsfield United and Yate Town for. Oh, I did go to Yate once, I forgot about that, it rained a lot, otherwise my memory is a bit vague on that one.

I set off nice and early and had a trouble free run from Belper, leaving the M5 with the Avonmouth Bridge just a junction away, and certainly visible in the distance. The A4 Portway takes you straight to the ground, but, you can’t turn right into it, so I had to drive quite a way past and do a u-turn in some queuing traffic. The ground sits right on the banks of the Avon, with the railway line that links Temple Meads and Severn Bridge running between.

The Creek, as it is known, is a super, old school, non-league football ground. You enter behind the goal and then turning to the left you’ve got the changing rooms and large clubhouse running from the corner of the pitch down to the half way line. Three stands adorn this side of the pitch, the first having seats in front of a standing area, the second, further down, is just seats, while finally the third structure is standing only.

Both ends are flat standing while on the far side of the ground which has the railway line running behind it, are the dugouts with a small covered standing area in between. The pitch was in very good condition considering the recent heavy rain, and with a larger than usual crowd of 230 in attendance, with a good number having travelled from Evesham, Friday night football looked to have worked for Farm.

The game was very entertaining. Evesham missed a great chance to take the lead when a penalty was awarded in the seventh minute, despite the fact they found the net moments after the whistle had been blown. Steve Davies saw his effort clip the top of the bar and sail harmlessly in the direction of the nearby sports centre. The referee, Stacey Pearson, allegedly said at half time that she’d made a mistake in not allowing play to go on, which clearly was no comfort to Evesham.

It kicked off in the 33^rd minute when Farm’s John Lock and Evesham’s Archie Haskayne were both shown red cards for their part in a skirmish, but then the hosts took the lead just before the break when Owen Howe rifled home from an acute angle.

The visitors equalised just after the break when Cory Simpson produced a clever lob from the edge of the box that drifted over the goalkeeper and into the net. The game ebbed and flowed thereafter, and it looked to be heading for a draw until the 88th minute.

Howe found himself in space, and ran in on goal before slotting the ball calmly under Andy Hannah, showing great composure as he did so. He ran to the crowd to celebrate, the three points looked to be in the bag.

And in the bag they were, on a night when the men from Bristol Manor Farm on the balance of play, probably just about deserved them.

The journey back was a steady one, until a crash right at the top of the M5, less than two miles from my exit, meant we were stationary for just over half an hour. A twenty past midnight arrival home was later than I’d hoped, but such are the trials and tribulations of the UK motorway network.

And not a single bridge was crossed, but it begs the question, can I get to Weston-Super-Mare without crossing the Avon? No, I thought not……..