Bristol Athletic 2 – 4 Eighty One United
Bristol Athletic have never made things easy for themselves and this debut season for the reformed club has been no different. Played two games, scored 6 goals but no points!
Three changes at the back saw a BAFC debut for keeper Maciej Jesionowski with Kelvin Williams & Joel Dacosta starting as centre backs , Amenraj Singh retaining his place as left back and Oskar Malisev was at right back. Raphael Waugh started upfront With Salva Marin, Shah Bhakerd, Romana Chambers, Jabari Ngozi & Emile Hunter packing a 5 man midfield.
It was the Jaguars first home game but despite the rousing team talk from Gaffer Kanwar Singh and the large crowd of supporters, there just wasn’t any real connection in Athletics play, loose passes and an inability to deal with over the top balls lead to Bristol going behind early on with an unmarked winger sliding a diagonal shot from the left past a fully stretched Jesionowski. The Jaguars pulled one back 10 minutes later when Raphael Waugh broke down the right and tricked his way straight towards goal unleashing a low right foot drive straight past the keeper to make it 1-1.
There really was little else to talk about in this match apart from 4 more goals and a strong Eighty One United performance. Bristol Athletics second goal came from Jabari Ngozi in the second half that also saw a missed Shah Bhakerd penalty.
Chevrick Miller was shown a red card towards the end of the game for what looked like a shoulder to shoulder clash resulting in a 4th Eighty One United Goal.
Substitute appearances from Kanwar Singh & Eldean Johnson did improve things slightly but it’s back to the drawing board for Manager Kanwar and assistant coach Kieran Miller who was absent today.
Our BAFC Player of the match today was 16 year old Amenraj Singh, not a natural defender but had a 99% success ratio with his passing and made some strong defensive tackles whilst also pushing in some quality forward movements and crosses.
There’s a team bursting with individual talent out there but it seems we’ll need to wait for the next match to see if the gaffers can work some magic and turn this group of talented individuals into a winning team.. Many thanks to the supporters today who braved the rain showers to show their love for Bristol Athletic.
