ALRESFORD TOWN 0 BRIDPORT 1

CHRIS Clarke netted a late winner at 10-man Alresford to seal Bridport’s place in the preliminary round of this season’s FA Cup.

Clarke’s goal means the Bees will now host rivals Sherborne in the next stage of the competition on August 29.

It was far from a cup classic at Arlebury Park on Saturday but Trevor Senior’s visitors did just enough to edge out their Syndenhams Wessex Premier Division opponents.

And the hosts’ cause wasn’t helped by the fact they had a man sent off 25 minutes into the contest.

That was the main talking point of a first half where chances were scarce at both ends of the pitch.

Bridport keeper Ashley Weeks and Alresford stopper John Howard really only had to make one save of note each before the break.

Weeks got down well to his right to keep out an effort from the home side, while Howard denied Shane Evans after good work from Tom Richardson.

Despite their man advantage, Bridport found it tough to break down a stubborn Alresford defence.

Howard was there again to save from Ryan Dovell 10 minutes from time, but just as it looked like the tie would go to a replay, up stepped Clarke to win it for the Bees.

Having cleared an Alresford set-piece, Dovell broke quickly and found Clarke, who then found himself up against the last man back for the hosts with two team-mates in support.

Clarke decided to go it alone and he hit a clinical left-foot drive that went in off the far post.

Bridport shut up shop after that and the Hampshire outfit had no response in the closing stages.

After the game, Senior acknowledged it wasn’t a great display from his men by any means, but getting through to the next round was all that mattered.

“Out of the three games we’ve played this season that was our worst performance by a long way,” he said. “But the pleasing thing was that we got the result and a clean sheet.

“We never really got going for any sustained periods in the game and were a bit hit and miss, though the defence did well when called upon.

“We spluttered a bit going forward and didn’t really have any flow to our game in attack.

“It wasn’t a very exciting game to watch and neither side really got going.

“But we got the win in the end and the general feeling was we might have lost a game like that last season.

“What’s good now is that we’ve got a home tie against Sherborne in the next round and we should get a decent crowd for that one.”

Commenting further on Alresford’s red card, Bees boss Senior added: “It was a blatant elbow on Warren Byerley, a forearm smash to the head really.

“But as often happens in those situations when teams go down to 10 men, they made it harder for us after that and we struggled to break them down.”

Bees: Weeks, A Symes (Senior 82), Clarke, Evans, Buckler, Hayter, J Symes (Bulman 40), Richardson, Gale (Condliffe 72), Byerley, Dovell. Subs not used: Peach, Hadley.