Street win through in FA Trophy after early scare
Street's first ever FA Trophy game ended in victory thanks to a devastating first half spell but were pushed hard all the way by a resilient Bideford side that for the second game running ended the game with 10 men.
Both sets of supporters had hardly settled into their seats as Bideford took the lead after only 20 seconds on the clock when Sean Downing superbly controlled a long pass and slotted pass Joe Moore. Street didn't let there heads drop and were soon back in the game on 13 minutes when a quick break from midfield by the impressive Jamie Short saw him feed Harry Foster on the edge of the box who brilliantly sent his marker the wrong way and calmly fired past Steve Oliver in the Bideford goal to make it 1-1. The game was turned on its head five minutes later when sublime wing play from Craig Herrod out on the right gave him the opportunity to float a high ball to the far post and Phil Ormrod climbed highest to plant his header into the far corner.
Street were all over Bideford at this stage in the game and Foster nearly made it 3 from a tight angle but Oliver made a superb save after Herrod's initial effort had been blocked. Just before the half hour mark the pressure finally told on the stretched Bideford defence when a Herrod corner was headed home by an unmarked Ross McErlain to make it 3-1.
Just after half time Street had the opportunity to kill the game off but Short fired over after good play down the left from Herrod. It was advantage Street after an hour when a dangerous lunge on Aidan Chainey from Bideford captain Matty Bye resulted in a straight red card. This however seemed to galvanise the hosts and reduced the deficit five minutes later when Chainey was adjudged to of fouled Ian Sampson just inside the box and Billy Tucker made no mistake from the resulting penalty. The vocal home support could sense an unlikely comeback but Josh Bennett, who was superb all game at right back and the rest of the Street defence were in no mood to surrender the slender lead.
Kyle Strange was introduced with 10 minutes to go and the young forward was full of running and showed some nice touches which helped Street relieve some of the pressure. There was a late chance for BIdeford when Street failed to clear a corner and the ball agonisingly bounced around the box but Ben Amghar was on hand to eventually clear the danger and give Street a safe passage into the next round.
Thank you to transport organiser Clive Kemmish and all the travelling support who made the trip, made a big difference!
Man of the match Craig Herrod congratulated by manager Rich Fey