North Devon League

Premier Division

Sunday 14th April 2019

Kick Off 14.30 Actual 14.32

North Molton Sports Club 3 Bradworthy United 1, attendance 19

26’ 1-0

56’ 1-1

57’ 2-1

90’+ 3, 3-1

@ Rocksfield

North Molton Sports & Community Centre

South Holdridge Lane

North Molton

EX36 3HG

No Admission or Programme.

I wouldn’t normally do a floodlit ground for an afternoon match, but with the lights here currently out of use and the fact that it was a day where this was the only unvisited ground available for me, then I made an exception. I took a bit of a risk by staying overnight, as this league is blighted by clubs who fail to fulfill fixtures at short notice, especially as this match had already been scheduled to have been played on a Sunday just two weeks ago!

North Molton came into this in third place in the league table and very much in with a shout of winning the title. Bradworthy are third bottom and could still go down, although it is unlikely that Hartland Clovelly will pull back the four point gap to go above them. North Molton were well on top, but Bradworthy put in a real battling performance and defended superbly. The breakthrough came with a shot on the turn after 26 minutes, but early in the second half Bradworthy scrambled in a deserved equaliser. Within a minute, North Molton were awarded a penalty, but it was saved, then from the resulting corner the ball was headed down and shot through a crowd of players to make it 2-1. The game was only made safe with an unstoppable 25 yard shot into the top corner of the net in stoppage time.

The win now puts North Molton (2 games left to play) top of the table with 47 points (Goal Difference 62). Shamwickshire Rovers (2 games left) are second on 46 points (GD 47) and reigning champions Park United (3 games left) are third on 45 Points (GD 48).