Bedworth United’s poor form continued as Long Eaton United inflicted a 3-1 defeat on a cold Tuesday night at The Oval.
The game started slowly with little action coming from either team, despite Long Eaton having the large share of possession.
Bedworth’s first chance of the game came from a quick counter attack led by George Dunkley. The winger carried ball from his own half to Long Eatons box, he played a nice pass into Charlie Dowd, but his shot just went wide.
Long Eaton were still dominating play, and were only creating half chances giving The Greenbacks an opportunity to counter which they did and nearly opened the scoring. Following a corner, the ball wasn’t dealt with by the Long Eaton defence and the ball span up in the air, Nat Kelly waited for the ball to drop before unleashing a fierce volley on goal which was struck sweetly but his effort was cleared off the line.
Just as Bedworth were building momentum, Long Eaton halted The Greenbacks progress by scoring a couple of minutes before the break. A floated cross from the right found an unmarked James Shaw from 6 yards to head between Liam O’Brien’s legs to make it 1-0.
HALF TIME: Bedworth United 0-1 Long Eaton United
The second half started in similar vein as the first half, with the visitors controlling possession but neither side creating anything of note.
It wasn’t until the 60th minute Bedworth threatened Long Eatons goal. A nice pass from Dunkley put Murphy through but his shot from a tight angle was parried wide by keeper Lewis King.
However, two minutes later, Long Eaton doubled their lead and James shaw doubled his tally. Bedworth were unable to deal with the long bouncing ball, and found its way to Shaw who volleyed superbly past O’Brien to get his brace. 2-0.
The Greenbacks did show some fight back and halved the deficit on 75 minutes. The hosts piled pressure in the opposition box and Elliot Parrott used his physical presence to flick the ball goalbound for substitute Jonathan Letford to squeeze past Lewis King in the visitors goal.
Charlie Dowd had a great opportunity to level the scoring 10 minutes later. A long ball up to Letford was knocked down to Dunkley, he slotted a pass into Dowds path but his shot from 12 yards went high and wide.
With Bedworth looking for a late equaliser, Long Eaton were able to find more space going forward, which they capitalised on in the 93rd minute. Nice link up play between James Taylor and Tristan Thompson-Matthews allowed the latter to work his way into the box and calmly slot the ball in the back of the net from 6 yards to seal al three points for Long Eaton. 3-1.
FULL TIME: Bedworth United 1-3 Long Eaton United
STARTING LINE UP: O’Brien, Moore (Sammons), Rowe, Parrott, Kelly, Patterson, Dunkley, Shaw, Murphy (Letford), Dowd, Stone(Candlin).
ATTENDANCE: 170
