Bradley..............0

Addingham........5

After convincingly beating Sutton Utd 7 - 0 on Saturday, a confident Addingham side made the short trip to Bradley on Monday, for their first night match of the New Year.

Despite the appalling weather conditions, both teams actively contributed a significant amount of energy and ambition, to make for an entertaining game, not least for the dedicated Addingham supporters who braved the elements.

Ultimately, what transpired was an awesome team performance by Addingham, culminating in the 5 - 0 demolition of their opponents.

Addingham found themselves camped in their own half for substantial periods of the first 45 minutes, playing up the slope and against the strong, chilling wind. However, due to fierce challenges accommodating the midfield and courageous defending within the back line, Bradley found it extremely difficult to break Addingham down.

Bradley applied some pressure but efforts on goal were quite minimalist. It was in fact Addingham who looked the more dangerous and likely to score on the counter attack. Veteran Parker was unlucky when his shot was blocked after a decisive run by Barrow released him. With Addingham emphasising their ability to move the ball around quickly from defence to attack, saw his shot thunder into the cross-bar and clawed away only inches from the Bradley line.

Bradley quickly responded, hitting the crossbar themselves when a free header was dispatched from inside the box. With determined, menacing challenges from Marriott, Palmer and A Collins, coupled with Dickinson, in full control of any aerial threat, Bradley failed to trouble keeper Dobson again in the half.

Addingham were granted a penalty when Barrow, after turning spontaneously in the box, was blatantly up ended. Fortunately for Bradley, S Collins scuffed his shot goalwards, and Bates gratefully collected the ball.

At 0 - 0 into the second half, Addingham looked to quickly stamp their superiority on the game. This they duly did by exploiting the slope and wind, while imposing their slick passing and quick movement on their opponents.

Addingham took the lead when Wilde struck the ball with emphatic velocity from 25 yards, beating the keeper who was left stranded only two yards out.

The second wasn't long in arrival, when the influential Smale effectively linked up with Barrow down the left. Barrow's ability on the ball terrorised the Bradley defence all evening, turning them inside out time and again. Wilde converted Barrow's driven low cross from close range to double the lead.

When Ridley came on for Parker after 60 mins, the pattern of the game remained, with the away team dominating possession, forcing constant pressure on the Bradley goal.

When Barrow whipped in a characteristic near post corner, the ball fell to the ubiquitous S Collins five yards out, whose clinical finish into the roof of the net made it 3 - 0 Addingham, and made amends for his earlier penalty mistake.

SUTTON.......................0

ADDINGHAM.............7

Despite Sutton's reputation as the division's bully boys, Addingham put them to the sword with an awesome display. Other teams had succumbed to Sutton's strong arm tactics and had come away bruised, battered and beaten.

Sutton's play may well have been to 'rough up' their more illustrious opponents but once the whistle blew two things became apparent. One was that Addingham's players were up for anything physical and two that with five minutes gone the gulf in class was so great that it took all of Sutton's efforts just to chase Addingham let alone anything else.

Such was Addingham's dominance that even one of the full backs got on the score sheet, Andy Collins first ever goal, may not have ripped the net or curled in the top corner from 35 yards but the young player's form this season has been absolutely stunning and his team-mates celebration showed how popular a player he is and he thoroughly deserved his goal.

With Jamie Barrow, their top scorer, rested for the game, Addingham started with Brian Wild as a lone striker. To say Brian had a good game was an understatement and a half, he found the net four times and overall showed his real class.

Wild opened the scoring after 10 minutes, a Woulbrook through ball found him unmarked and calmly rounded the 'keeper and tapped home. John Cummings made it two soon after, he caressed a Ridley long pass in to his stride and then smashed home past the hapless keeper.

Marriot then dished up a treat of a cross that Wild rammed home to make it 3 - 0 at the break.

Barrow came on second-half and immediately set up Wild for his hat-trick with a lovely cross, that the striker headed home. Simon Collins made it five not long after with an easy tap home after the keeper had failed to hold Marriot's shot.

Next up was Andy Collins, his curling low cross deceived everyone and nestled in the far corner, cue the wild celebrations. Wildy then completed the rout and took his tally to four as he rose above the centre back to bullet home Gregg Palmer's corner.

Overall a comfortable win, but pleasingly the back four and keeper Dobson kept their first clean sheet for some time, that put Addingham in confident mood for Monday night's trip to Bradley.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.