A bright but gusty Eastwood Ho! was the venue, as the Badgers looked to stretch their unbeaten start to the season to six games against The Feathers. Brantham started against the wind and with the sun in their eyes, but still started well, good work from Cracknell and Titch on the wings presented both Jamie Carrington and Craig Clarke with early chances but a combination of good goalkeeping and some poor finishing meant the scores stayed level.
Badgers did break the deadlock in the 10th minute, Carrington feeding C Clarke who slotted the ball in the bottom right corner.
It was 2-0 just 8 minutes later, Craig Clarke becoming provider for Jamie Carrington to tap in from close range.
Then came a 10 minutes of comedy from the Badgers, Guy Clubb taking an air shot when he found himself un-marked in the box, Ross Cracknell saved Alan Backhouses blushes when he prevented his shot from going out for a throw-in and Justin Vince did well to prevent Titch from making it 3-0 when they both attempted to head the same ball into and open goal.
Justn “V-man” Vince nearly made up for his earlier blooper when he hit a fierce long range shot just over the bar.
Brantham did finally make it 3-0 when Jamie Carrington laid it on a plate for Craig Clarke to score his second of the game. Badgers were coasting to another victory but were caught napping at the back on 39 minutes when a perfectly weighted through ball found a Feathers striker un-marked and he made no mistake in making the most of his teams first real effort on goal. 3-1.
That goal kicked Brantham into life good work in midfield from Backhouse and Vince helping Craig Clarke to score 2 quick fire goals, his 3rd and 4th of the game.
HALF TIME: 1-5
With the wind on their backs the Badgers started the second half slowly, Steven Goodchild on for Lee Butcher had a 5 minutes to forget whilst the front 2 both had chances miss the target.
Brantham made it 6-1 when Craig Clarke fed Ross Cracknell for his first of the game, in the next 15 minutes the Badgers dominated but couldn’t hit the net, long range strikes from Jamie Carrington, Greg Ranson, Lee Clarke and Alan Backhouse all missing the target.
On 68 minutes, a Steven Goodchild corner found Graham Stiff at the far post, his header hitting both Jamie Carrington and the post before falling to Guy Clubb who scored at the second attempt.
10 minutes later a quick corner saw Ross Cracknell play a ball across the face of goal at pace, an un-marked Graham Stiff could only manage to stick out a knee but luckily the ball fell to Jamie Carrington made no mistake from close range. 8-1.
At this point The Feathers had all but given up, 4 goals in 7 minutes would seal their fate. Good work from Goodchild left Cracknell with a tap in. Craig Clarke then broke into the box, and played a square ball past the advancing keeping leaving Ross Cracknell to complete his hat-trick into an empty net. Cracknell then turned provider for team captain Lee Clarke to fire home at the far post and Jamie Carrington became the 3rd hat-trick hero of the day when he fired home just inside the area.
FINAL SCORE: 1-12
Man of the Match: Justin Vince
