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PICTURE: Stoke Poges celebrate one of their three goals in the 3-2 win against Britwell in the Showcase Match at Burnham on Friday night. Photo by Gary House.
Stoke Poges continue to do themselves proud after a 3-2 win against Britwell in the Showcase Match on Friday night.
The young team is new to the Premier Division this season and were out-gunned by the league leaders in the reverse fixture, a 4-0 defeat at Arbour Park in January,
But, Stoke manager, Scott Manton, was confident his side had learned from that match and improved to gain a well-earned win under the lights at Burnham.
Manton said: “I thought it was two different halves of football really. We played some really good football in the first half.
“We learnt a lot from the first game in terms of keeping possession, the things that Britwell did very well then. We went away and we worked on it, and that showed in the first half.
“We kept the ball very well at times and scored an absolute pearler of a first goal, and we came into half time when I think we deserved it.
“To be honest, the changing rooms are so close together you could hear that Britwell were not happy at half-time, and we used that to motivate us really.
“We knew what was coming, we knew they were going to try to press us more and compete for every ball. We said that we needed to match them and that’s what we did.”
Manton continued: “The second half was a battle, a dog-fight, and thankfully we came out on top.
“We were up against it a little bit when the second goal came and it definitely calmed us down a little bit.
“But, fair play to Britwell, they came back at us hard and made it 2-2.
“We were gutted about that but the lads picked themselves up again and we went on to get the winner.
“It would’ve been so easy to crumble at 2-2 and lose the game, but we didn’t, we dug in and got the winner. And when it was 3-2, we worked so hard to keep ourselves in front and win the game.
“We played Britwell three or four weeks ago and they played us off the park in the last 30 minutes.
“It would’ve been so easy to come into this game with heads down expecting to lose, but we didn’t. We’ve come here thinking we could upset them and get a positive result and we have done.”
A goal from Tai Maddox gave Stoke a narrow lead heading into the break at Burnham Football Club, and Mark Beale doubled their advantage under the lights in the second half.
Britwell would not give up without a fight however and levelled the scores when both Aydn Christian and Ben White found the back of the net with plenty of time still left on the clock.
VIDEO: A frustrated Britwell manager, John Brennan, reacts to the 3-2 defeat against Stoke Poges on Friday night.
But, it was Stoke that were awarded the chance to take all three points when a penalty kick was awarded for handball and Captain, Scott Gibson, kept his cool to slot home.
The win means Stoke Poges climbed above Iver Heath into seventh position and four points clear of the two relegation places, whilst Britwell missed out on the chance to increase their lead at the top of the table to eight points.
Manton added: “We’ve got two games to look forward to in the Cups and we would love to go far in those.
“As nice as it is beating the top of the league, its back to training on Thursday, and we’ve got to keep on progressing.
“We’ve come from Division One straight into the Premier Division, which was a little bit of a baptism of fire, but we’ve done ourselves so proud
“We’ve competed in pretty much every game and we’ve just got better and better.
“We’ve just beaten the top of the league so we can hopefully go on and compete with anyone now.”
To enter the East Berkshire Football League ahead of the 2022/23 season, or for further information about the league, or an entry form for the upcoming season, please email the team at contactebfl@gmail.com
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