Three Bridges go fourth in table after late O'Neill brace beats Sevenoaks Town

Two late goals by skipper Brannon O’Neill gave Three Bridges a win that saw them leapfrog over Chichester City into fourth place in the table, but at times the homesters looked second best to a Sevenoaks side with only pride to play for.

The visitors had a solid back line but were also adventurous and aggressive when needed. Home keeper Leo Anderson was forced to make a good early save to deny Kanye Diedrick-Robert, although he was grateful when a hoofed clearance by Dominic Morgan Griffiths looped over him but then hit the crossbar!

Bridges did however feel that they should have had a penalty in the 37th minute when Ibrahim Jalloh’s cross to Kevin Rivera saw the latter clearly tripped. But the ball came to Nabeel Ghannam, whose fierce shot was deflected wide, and it appeared that the referee had decided not to bring the play back for a spot kick.

Just five minutes into the second half, Sevenoaks though deservedly went ahead when the ball was bouncing everywhere inside the box before Daniel Bennett delivered the perfect volley beyond Anderson.

Bridges at last began to look threatening with Noel Leighton heading just wide from an O’Neill corner. Bridges seemed to have another decent penalty claim when Harvey Woollard’s attempted pass in the box looked to be handled by a defender, and just after that Leighton was wide again.

But, just after the signal for five added minutes was announced, a goalmouth melee saw Leighton manage to squeeze the ball across the face of the goal, and O’Neill adjusted his feet to stab home from almost on the line.

Sevenoaks, who had played keep ball towards the end, suddenly livened up again, and it needed a brilliant block by Anderson to stop Kieron Cadogan’s point blank effort. Instead the play went to the other end, where Jalloh steered the ball goalwards and O’Neill got the faintest of touches to fool Town keeper Daniel Colmer, who’d had a relatively quiet afternoon until those final minutes!

Bridges: L.Anderson, D.Ferreira, H.Woollard, B.Irving, C.Donaghey (T.Difika, 49), B.Villavicencio (R.Euba, 56), I.Jalloh, B.O’Neill, N.Leighton, K.Rivera, N.Ghannam (A.Adam, 70).Unused Subs. - E.Hanslow, S.Agun.Booked - O’Neill (68).

Bridges are away to current League leaders Ramsgate on Saturday, and then they will be involved in a Play Off away to an as yet unknown opponent the following Tuesday.