Bristol Premier Combination January 4th 2025 edition
By Simon Parkinson
UNRELENTING Winterbourne United hit the New Year ground running with yet another victory to maintain Premier Division pole position.
They did leave it late in order to pocket three more prized points at the expense of improved and resilient Patchway Town hosts eager, by contrast, to keep the relegation trapdoor firmly at arm’s length in 2025.
The fixture having been switched to the small pitch at Patchway’s Scott Park in order for the game to go ahead, Winterbourne nonetheless attempted to perform ‘play out football’ in a strong first half display which somehow yielded them no reward.
Twice they had the ball in the Town net, only to be denied by two tight offside calls, while Tim Minihane’s men also struck the woodwork and missed other great chances.
The in-form Patchway keeper did his bit too to deny the league leaders, saving from Ben Weaver’s run and shot just before half-time.
Patchway defended more deeply in a scrappier second half, and the game became feisty at times.
Several opportunities came and went for Winterbourne and a goalless outcome appeared to be firmly on the cards.
That was until 18-year-old substitute Ollie Faulkner notched his third and most important goal to date against his former club in the 97th minute to secure a deserved three points for his jubilant team.
This was Winterbourne’s seventh straight win since their only defeat on the opening day, a 2-1 home loss by Shaftesbury Crusade, sending them into this Saturday’s next important test against their winless Parkside Avenue guests AEK-Boco Reserves (2pm) high on confidence.
In the only other Premier Division game played as the weather continued to do its worst, Hallen Reserves, whose only loss so far came at the hands of Winterbourne, 1-0 in December, continued their impressive climb into third spot thanks to a hard-fought 3-2 success at Bradley Stoke Town.
Harrison Fairman was the hat-trick hero for Hallen to clinch them three more precious points, while Mitch Bombroff and Kieran Jackson strikes for Bradley Stoke ensured a tight Little Stoke Park contest went to the wire.
Hallen now prepare to host second-placed Iron Acton on Saturday (2pm) for a tasty upper-table duel between two teams separated only by a single point.
There were two games on show in Division One, where fourth-placed Bristol Barcelona kept their proud undefeated stretch since the very start intact and emphatically so with a 7-2 away success over an Oldland Abbotonians Reserves outfit registering through Ellis Clarke and Tobias Watson.
Also, like Barca’s battlers, looking pretty unstoppable at this time, Bedminster Down find themselves second in the table heading into Saturday’s appointment with Lion at Little Stoke Park (2pm) after two Connor Bodnarazek goals and Jack Steeds effort took them safely past mid-table hosts Hillside, who had Piers Ellis Walton on target, 3-1.
Like the majority of Combination clubs, third-placed Greyfriars Athletic, who don’t return to the First Division fray until their big home test with Bristol Barcelona at New Road on Saturday week, January 18, were without a weekend game.
The postponement of their home fixture with Bendix gave encouraged manager Benni McCarthy chance to reflect on wider club affairs, prompting him to say: “Our third team, who big Kev Wilkinson, our then club secretary, used to manage before his sad death, had a really challenging few years of it spending a lot of time at the foot of their table.
“This year we’ve seen a massive turnaround and that is shown by the fact they are currently second in Division Four of the District League for probably the first time in some 15 years.
“On Saturday those thirds produced an excellent performance in beating Shaftesbury A 4-2 with goals by Jack Smale, Remi Smith, Joe Hodge and Aaron Turner.
“You can see for sure that the hard work Jay Semmence is putting in to build a great team and to push them forward is richly paying off.”