ROAD WOES CONTINUE; BADGERS SUNK AT SODDEN SUDBURY

Broxbourne fell to a narrow 5-4 defeat at league leaders Sudbury on a miserable rainy afternoon in Suffolk. The defeat meant Broxbourne have lost two of their opening three games with both losses coming away from home continuing a worrying trend that lasted most of last season. If the Badgers have any ideas about promotion a solution must be found quickly to solve this puzzling problem.

Broxbourne started on the front foot taking the game to their hosts and took the lead on eight minutes, George Blemkin reacted fastest to a rebound from a short corner and calmly placed the ball into the corner making it 1-0. The lead was short lived, a Sudbury counter attack sliced through the Badger defense giving Keeper Ryan Thomas no chance. Broxbourne kept their composure and re-took the lead five minutes later, a penetrating run into the D from Ben Scarrott forced the keeper into a fine save but Phil Bryans was on hand to tap home the rebound making it 2-1 Broxbourne.

A game that was physical and competitive then became dominated by umpires who produced a flurry of cards for various fouls but showed no consistency in the punishment dished out. Broxbourne played most of the second half of the first half with ten as Charlie Frederick, Chris Hopson, Luke Saunders and Toby House were issued a combination of yellow and green cards. Sudbury took advantage and equalised from a questionable short corner. They then took the lead following an error from the usually composed Hopson. The head coach somehow found himself defending on his own base line and when the ball fell to him Hopson carefully surveyed his options, he selected one many wouldn’t have the confidence to try, a through ball through the heart of D in an effort to launch a counter attack. The bold move backfired badly, Hopson topped his hit, possibly due to the rain and picked out the Sudbury centre forward perfectly who made no mistake.

The Badgers regrouped at the interval and were level within two minutes. Louis and Ben Scarrott combined well to set up Toby House. The youngster usually tries to avoid at all costs hitting the ball on his open stick, thankfully this time he was forced into a first time open side shot and found the bottom corner making it 3-3.

The next twenty minutes were an even affair with Badgers marginally on top. Another yellow, this time to Mitch Chapman forced the Badgers to play with ten again but they weathered the storm and the scores remained tied.

With ten minutes to go the breakthrough finally came unfortunately though it was for Sudbury. A well worked short corner was deflected home at the far post to send the annoyingly vociferous local fan into overdrive.

The Badgers had their chances to get back in the game but were unable to convert two short corners. Chasing the game Broxbourne were left open to the counter attack and it was soon 5-3 when a forward was left unmarked at the far post.

The Badgers kept going and reduced their arrears when Stan Mason tapped home but it was too little too late with the final score 5-4 to the home side.

Despite the defeat there were many positives to take from the game for the visitors, it was a vast improvement on the defeat at Potters Bar and the game was there to be won heading into the last ten minutes but as is always the case in a tight game, the team that takes their chances win.

Broxbourne look to get back to winning ways next week at home against Wisbech.