Bamber Bridge 2 Lancaster City 1: Consecutive defeats for Dolly Blues

Having trailed by two goals at half-time, the Dolly Blues halved their deficit shortly after the break through Nic Evangelinos but could not find an equaliser for a share of the points.

Finlay Cross-Adair and former Dolly Blue Paul Dawson scored Bamber Bridge’s goals in a game where Lancaster showed enough to feel dissatisfied with the result.

After a bright Easter weekend, Bank Holiday Monday arrived with very wet conditions through heavy rainfall in the morning and early afternoon.

The pitch had received a dousing and both teams had that factor to consider early on.

Lancaster started positively and were able to get off a few attempts at goal in the opening stages.

Brad Carroll fired over the bar from the edge of the box before Rudy Misambo was also unable to find the target after getting on the end of a corner.

After a quiet start, Bamber Bridge began to press forward and took the lead on 24 minutes.

They won back possession up the pitch, the ball coming to Cross-Adair who struck home from just outside the area to give the hosts the lead.

Lancaster responded well and had chances to level the scoring as Owen Robinson almost found an immediate response.

Evangelinos was denied by goalkeeper Felix Goddard after being slipped in by Charlie Bailey.

Despite this, Bamber Bridge doubled their lead from a corner on 37 minutes as Dawson drifted in to head goalwards and score.

Shortly afterwards, Evangelinos had an attempt claimed by Goddard which led to a dangerous counter-attack.

That saw Fin Sinclair-Smith find Cross-Adair with a centre from the left, but the opening goalscorer couldn’t make it a brace as his effort went wide.

After the break, Lancaster finally made one of their attempts count as Evangelinos scored a beauty just before the hour mark.

Collecting the second ball from a set-piece, he struck a volley well beyond Goddard and gave City a route back into the game.

They put Bamber Bridge under pressure with consistent attacks in the search for an equaliser.

The hosts managed to ride out the storm, however, and nearly hit City again as Cross-Adair was denied by Sam Waller.