Sturminster Marshall went in to the game against a young Bridport side hoping they could regain their early season form and push themselves clear from their opponents in the Dorset Division Two table.

Stur started to settle the quicker but were limited to half chances as David Johnston fired wide from the edge of the box after working an opening with some neat passing involving his brother, Steven and also Jack Fendley.

However, the story of Stur’s season so far continued as a seemingly harmless through ball was chased upon by the Bridport striker and hesitancy in Stur defence enabled the young forward to lob the ball over the advancing Mark Fuller and gave Bridport an early lead.

Stur fought back straight away and a through ball over the Bridport backline put Rob Clark clear of the defence but the Stur forward decided to try and lob the ball over the Bridport goalkeeper but his decision came to no avail as the goalkeeper backtracked and saved the ball despite a late stumble.

On 35 minutes, Stur were left in dismay as Bridport doubled their lead against the run of play.

An unfortunate mistake on the edge of the area from the much improved Jamie Bowles was capitalised upon by a Bridport player who pulled the ball back to the oncoming striker who placed it firmly past the reach of Mark Fuller.

Stur had it all to do.

The second half started in similar fashion with Stur having a lot of possession.

Despite some frustration being shown from the Stur players, Stur finally halved the deficit on 65 minutes when Steven Johnston was put through on goal thanks to Ryan Hall’s expertly placed pass and he did the rest by rounding the goalkeeper and coolly placing the ball in to the empty net.

Stur were back in it.

Stur continued to fight for a deserved equaliser as Bridport struggled to get out of their own half.

Despite all the passing and movement, Stur struggled to breach the Bridport backline but were given a goal scoring opportunity on 85 minutes.

A Dipping Ryan Hall volley from the edge of the box was palmed out by the goalkeeper in to the path of Richie Davies whose half volley looked certain to hit the net but a superb save on to the post by the goalkeeper stopped him from doing so and the ball was scrambled away for a corner despite the best efforts from second half substitute, Ciaran Miller to force the ball in to the net.

Regardless of a late Stur rally, it was Briport’s day.

Despite the result, the second half performance from Stur was much improved and they will hope that they can build upon this for their next home game against Weymouth Spartans.

NEXT GAME – 26^th MARCH WEYMOUTH SPARTANS (HOME) 3pm kick off