Brentwood were unable to continue their good form of the previous week and were disappointingly beaten by a weaker team.

Although the home side pressed in the first twenty minutes, it was the travellers who took the lead through a fast break. Missed tackles allowed the midfield player into the 'D' before he swept the ball wide to his unmarked team-mate to push the ball into the net.

Rob Fryer pulled the scoreline level through a short corner. Although the routine had not been rehearsed, Fryer lined himself up and hit a powerful shot into the bottom left hand corner of the net.

Bourne pulled themselves back into the lead moments later and held this until the half time whistle.

The second half saw Brentwood push forward more and they were justly rewarded with an equaliser ten minutes in. Rob Cousins' shot took a wicked deflection off a defender's stick to loop over the goalkeeper and drop just under the crossbar.

As had been the case before, Bourne reclaimed the lead, this time with a fine individual effort from one of their midfield players.

A 20 yard run past three defenders left him at the top of the 'D' with only Paul Johnson in goal to beat.

His powerful shot flew high into the top left corner with Johnson left motionless.

Again Brentwood took up the gauntlet to attack. This time a perfectly worked short corner picked out Steve Miller to deflect the ball into the net.

Jamie Agate was then involved in a collision with a Bourne player.

The umpire adjudged Agate to be the offending player and he was swiftly awarded a yellow card.

Stuart Piper's protestations and accusations about the Bourne player's conduct could not be ignored by the Umpire who sent him to spend the same period behind the goal as Agate.

Down to nine players, Brentwood struggled to keep possession of the ball and it wasn't long until Bourne had regained the lead for the final time.

Published Tuesday October 29, 2002

Brought to you by the Brentwood Gazette