Hawks boss left frustrated by missed opportunity

Lee Bradbury admitted a sense of frustration after the Hawks were held to a 0-0 draw by Leiston at Westleigh Park.
Theo Lewis comes close to scoring. Picture: Mick Young (161177-02)Theo Lewis comes close to scoring. Picture: Mick Young (161177-02)
Theo Lewis comes close to scoring. Picture: Mick Young (161177-02)

The boss felt his troops had passed up a great opportunity to inflict a first defeat of the season on the Ryman League premier division leaders.

It was a contest the Hawks dominated from start to finish – without being able to make the vital breakthrough.

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Even when the visitors were reduced to 10 men for the final 25 minutes, the hosts failed to make their numerical advantage count.

Bradbury was left bemoaning his side’s failure to take their chances.

The Hawks boss said: ‘It was a really good performance but again we didn’t quite have the necessary cutting edge.

‘It wasn’t for the want of trying. For us, it was an opportunity missed and not just because they had a man sent off.

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‘We had the majority of the play and the majority of the chances.

‘I think our goalkeeper, Ryan Young, only had one save to make all game.

‘It was a very good, hard-working performance from us.

‘We stopped the highest scorers in our league from scoring – and that is the first time we have failed to score in the league this season. They looked like they came to us happy to sit in and hit us on the counter-attack.

‘I felt we dealt with that well. We played at a high tempo because we knew they would try to slow the game down.

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‘It was all us and on another day we would have come away with a win.’

The Hawks took charge from the first whistle – pinning Leiston back for long spells in the opening 45 minutes.

On occasions the visitors broke out with quick counters but largely it was the hosts on the front foot.

Ben Swallow switched to the left flank, causing Leiston problems as time and again he beat his defender on the outside and managed to get crosses in from the byline.

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Wes Fogden glanced a header dangerously across goal and visiting keeper Jack Marsden pushed a fierce Matt Paterson drive round the post.

The Hawks went closest from a corner on the stroke of half-time.

Swallow delivered from the right and both Paterson and Jason Prior had close-range efforts cleared off the goalline.

The game continued in the same vein after the break, although Swallow faded as the game went on.

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And when Leiston had Byron Lawrence sent off, the task appeared to became harder for the hosts.

Leiston got more players behind the ball to frustrate their hosts.

‘We felt Leiston were happy to come for a point,’ added Bradbury.

‘For all our domination, we didn’t create many clear-cut chances.

‘They defended for their lives and did it very well.

‘In the closing stages they didn’t allow us the room to play.’