Recap
Louis Johnson dropped out of the starting XI and Greg Halford took his place in defence as Bishops’ looked to match up against the physicality and height of the home side, and the changes appeared to work in a first half where ‘Ponte’ barely threatened apart from a long range effort that clipped the top of Norton’s cross bar just before the break.
Bishops put together some positive passages of play on the scorched, bone-hard pitch, and the breakthrough moment arrived in 24 minutes when a deep Hackett cross from the left dropped for Bartliff to head home unchallenged with minimum fuss. Martin pulled a shot just wide, and on the stroke of half time, Hargrave was brought down right on the edge of the penalty area when clean through, only a yellow given to the ‘Ponte’ defender. Hackett placed his free kick into the arms of the home stopper.
The second half started in tetchy fashion with the vocal home support unhappy with several refereeing decisions, which only seemed to spark their side into life. Bishops rode a period of pressure before the imposing figure of Burns had a second bite of the cherry from a corner and fired home past Norton in a crowded box.
On 71 minutes there was a period of confusion as the referee showed home forward Dunn a red card following a late challenge, which was contested on the basis of mistaken identity, however the card stood and ‘Ponte’ battled on with the man disadvantage, continuing to look the side more likely of grabbing a winner.
Bishops’ almost grabbed a winner against the run of play with only a minute of normal time left, but Hargrave sliced his effort well wide after substitute Vaulks weak shot, which proved to be the last meaningful action despite four minutes of time added on.
Match report by Gavin Hadden
v 