A young Rovers side came to the seaside and sealed a comfortable 2-0 victory with goals from Billy Whitehouse and Anthony Bell.
Bridlington Town- 0
Doncaster Rovers U21- 2 (Whitehouse 50’ , Bell 89’)
Bridlington Town Football Club, Queensgate
Wednesday 22nd July 2015, 7.30pm
Pre-season friendly
Rovers were always in control against a physical Bridlington side, however Brid did have spells where they looked like they could score.
Joe Pugh was energetic from the start and after only 2 minutes he broke down the flank at pace, cut inside but his shot went inches over. Bell also threatened the Bridlington goal, and after a fantastic 40 yard pass from Paul McKay to him it was only some last ditch defending that kept the scores even.
On 14 minutes Rovers had a huge shout for a penalty. That man Bell again caused havoc in the Bridlington defence as he swerved passed 3 defenders only to be shoved off the ball but the Rovers cries for a spot kick fell on deaf ears as the ref waved play on and the home side cleared.
Rovers threatened to break the scoring with efforts from McKay and Billy Whitehouse whilst Matty Davies and Joe Pugh continued to look dangerous.
It wasn’t all Rovers though. The powerful and pacey Ombeni Ruhanduka caused a few issues for the Rovers defence, but his endeavors didn’t trouble the confident Marko Marosi.
On 17 minutes Matty Davies slotted a great through ball again to Joe Pugh who hammered it down the right flank. He whipped in a low cross but it just failed to beat James Hitchcock in the home goal.
On 28 minutes Rovers played their best football of the half as McKay linked up with Mandeville, Mandeville with Whitehouse before he played in Davies whose shot was blocked before it fell to Pugh 18 yards out whose shot went over the Brid bar.
Rovers were comfortable but couldn’t find that goal. Young Davies bossed the midfield and linked up well with Billy Whitehouse but both teams went in scoreless. Will Waudby had a good chance on 43 to put the home side ahead. His blockbuster from 30 yards flying just passed the post of the Rovers goal.
Rovers started the second half with energy and it only took 5 minutes for the deadlock to be broken after Billy Whitehouse slotted home inside the box after some great work by Davies who had an initial shot blocked.
Bell and Pugh continued to cause problems for the home side but Rovers couldn’t get a second.
Tom Waudby threatened for Bridlington several times, the pace and power of Ombeni Ruhanduka was relentless but they couldn’t break down a solid Rovers back 5.
A physical battle between two footballing sides was finally settled on 89 minutes as trailist Anthony Bell calmy finished a neat Rovers move to make the trip to the seaside a worthwhile one and sent the travelling Rovers fans home with a smile.
Full time: Bridlington 0-2 Rovers
Bridlington Starting XI: Hitchcock, Parker, Brunton, Allanson, Nicholls, Aziz, Harman, Ruhandduka, Reeson, Waudby, Coverdale
Bridlington bench: T.Waudby, Whittingham, Morritt, Owen
Rovers U21 Starting XI: Marosi (Jones 86’), Lund, Carberry, Linley, P.McKay (Greasley 70’), Mbuti (Williamson 45’), Bell, Davies (Walker 55’), Pugh (Longbottom 60’), Mandeville (Fielding 80’), Whitehouse (Parkin 74’)