Braishfield U18s kicked off their new season with a hard-earned 3-2 victory against a well drilled Wimborne team on an unseasonably hot morning at Sherfield English.

The opening stages of the match belonged to Wimborne whose slick passing and movement caused trouble for the home team, but the defence of Charley Cromer, Charlie Taylor, Harvey Crawford and Charlie Anderson held out and marshalled the attacks well. It was actually a break from midfield that gave the visitors the lead on 22 minutes when their impressive centre midfielder came unopposed through the middle and struck a great shot, giving keeper, Henry Brown, little chance. Almost immediately Brown produced a great save with his legs to keep it at one goal down.

Braishfield were now beginning to get to grips with the game in midfield and the influential Jake Mortimer and the industry of Josh Aldridge began to get results going forward. On the half hour it was Mortimer who won a ball and played it out to winger Oli Wilson who gave it to striker Joe Lovell who take it upon himself to glide past three Wimborne defenders before stroking it past the helpless keeper. The second half started with the sun still beating down but Braishfield kept playing their football and giving their opponents little rest down either flank with Andy Jerram and Joe Wright working well down the right and Wilson with Lovell and Anderson prominent down the left.Midway through the second half Braishfield got their noses in front for the first time when from a great Aldridge free-kick, Joe Lovell ghosted into the box unopposed to side foot the ball past the stranded keeper.

This provoked Wimborne back into action and they began to press again against a tiring Braishfield team that only had 12 players on the day.

With 10 mins remaining a long-range dipping shot from the visiting striker was superbly tipped onto the bar by Brown and after two bounces on the goal line was picked up safely. There was now a lot of pressure to endure under the boiling sun, but the team throughout worked tirelessly to keep the threat posed by Wimborne to a minimum and With one minute of normal time left, Braishfield thought they had weathered the storm but a break into the box led to a cracking shot by the Wimborne striker which was initially saved brilliantly by Brown but the rebound came back out and another shot came in which hit Taylor on the chest and the ref controversially gave a penalty. The penalty was converted easily and we thought that was that.

Braishfield have a habit of making things happen on this pitch and withIn the last minute of injury time running down the impressive Charlie Anderson sprinted on to a through ball and clashed with the keeper which the referee deemed a penalty.

Up stepped Joe Lovell to complete his hattrick and Braishfield’s victory.

We have no fixture next week but would take this opportunity to say that if any boy is interested in joining us this season in League 1 of the U18 Testway Youth League please contact braishfieldbeesfc@gmail.com