SSC1 Brockenhurst 5 Lyndhurst 0

2 September 2025

Now here’s a genuine rarity: a game against the closest neighbours!  Lyndhurst play in the Southampton Saturday League, so this very short journey doesn’t get made very often in a footballing sense.  No preamble today; let’s just get on with it –

Except, before all that, the announcement of a new manager!  Welcome to Steve Devlin, midfield legend at Poole Town (with stints at Dorchester and Shaftesbury), locally based and with some recent coaching experience with the Dolphins.  I’ve said elsewhere that I think this Brock squad has a lot of talent which hasn’t quite gelled together yet, so there are some good foundations but also definite opportunities for improvement if he can get them performing as a team.  He wasn’t in charge this evening, of course, but I look forward to the 25-game unbeaten run he’s about to launch… ahem…

OK, Lyndhurst.  To be honest, I know nothing about the club, and my ‘extensive’ research (a quick Google) didn’t help much.  But they’re four divisions below Brockenhurst, so in theory a home win was very much on the cards, and Brock went with a strong team.  An excellent crowd of 144, many of them visiting fans, good on them. 

The green-and-blacks actually had the first shot of the match, after 33 seconds (weak and straight at keeper Puleo), and the visitors didn’t start badly.  They fell behind on ten minutes – a corner headed goalwards by Steve Walker, tipped over the bar by Schultze, second corner headed back across by Walker and landing at the feet of Macfarlane who duly obliged.  However, the floodgates did not open.  The Lyndhurst defence stood firm, blocking crosses and shots, heading away, and maybe sometimes getting a bit lucky (Rossi hitting the post, Dylan Walker shooting over from the angle, off balance, having beaten the keeper; Dylan scoring but ruled offside) – and one decent save from a Rossi shot just before the break.  In between, Cameron Morgan hit a piledriver of a shot for the visitors, parried by Puleo who just reached the loose ball before Hartley.  Not, overall, an inspiring half of football.  HT 1-0

The Badgers had looked a bit too casual in the first half, but the start of the second half was almost a catastrophe – 15 seconds in, Channell sloppy in gifting the ball to Morgan who brushed aside a weak tackle from Walker and was clean through on goal – Puleo saved with his legs and the ball went behind for a corner.  That should have been 1-1, and who knows what might have happened.  51 minutes and a quick throw, Morgan set up Ryan Hartley (best Lyndhurst player by some distance) and his cross-shot went wide of the goal.  Meanwhile the visitors continued to defend stoutly, Bedford with a great interception in his own box, and too many headed clearances to count… Rossi headed over when free at the back post… and then on 65, calamity for Lyndhurst, Jamie-Jay Burgess with yet another great run down the right, taken down a couple of inches outside the box but this brought a slightly unlucky second yellow for Andy Huggett, and hence marching orders.  Tough for ten men, tougher three minutes later when a shot pinballed around in the six-yard box and slowly spun back over the line for an own goal.  No idea who it came off last but it seemed to hit at least three Lyndhurst players on the way.  Two minutes after that, Toby Colmer shot from the edge of the box into the far corner to extend the lead to 3, and that was always going to be more than enough.  Predictably the visitors started to tire, and the Badgers were finding space all over the pitch.  Credit to Morgan, worked himself into the ground, but the chances were mounting for Brock and Omarion Mason scored twice (80th and 86th minutes) and then headed over from seven yards in injury time.  FT 5-0

In the end, this was a comfortable enough win, watched by the new manager; I wonder what he made of it.  The sponsors gave man of the match to Liam – I’m never going to argue with that selection, even if tonight I would have probably gone with Jamie-Jay (just shows what being fully fit and getting a run of games can do for you).  Despite the scoreline, it wasn’t really a commanding performance – I know, fans can be hard to please.  Freddie was a livewire when he came on, pleased to see Omarion get his first goals, and I guess it’s hard to be too critical after successive 5-goal wins.  Be nice to see another one at the Camp & Satherley on Saturday!