Brid Kick Off New Season in North East

Bridlington Town have an FA Cup trip to the North East, once again, on Saturday.

Following the pattern from last season, when the Seasiders travelled to Bishop Auckland, Adrian Costello’s side will open the season with a trip to the north east in the FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round - taking on Birtley Town on this occasion.

It begins a new era for the club, as Pete Smurthwaite ended his two decade tenure as chairman of the club, with this being the first competitive game without him owning the club.

Taking over the batton is Dan Rogers of HDM Solar, who has lots of exciting ambitions to grow the club both on and off the pitch.

This has seen considerable improvements to the playing squad, most notably the signing of Michael Coulson, former Scarborough Athletic captain, from Farsley Celtic.

Coulson is one of many impressive pickups this summer, offering EFL experience alongside new signings Simon Heslop and Nathan Doyle. Other new signings include Josh Barrett, Curtis Morrison, Matty Bowman and Jack Moore-Billam.

Whilst there has been a high turnover of players during this transitional phase, Costello has retained key players from last season, including the likes of captain James Williamson, Pete Davidson, Will Sutton, Alex Markham, Tom Algar and Bobby Attree and Benn Lewis.

As well as bringing in players from a wider geographical area from higher leagues, the club have been committed to bringing through players local to Bridlington from the lower leagues. 

Coby Scotter and Billy Ripley have both found themselves on the scoresheet for the Seasiders, whilst Ryan Bemrose has also impressed in midfield, with the trio signing on for the 2024/25 campaign.

Goalkeeper Owen Grainger, who also grew up in Bridlington, was also signed on a two-month loan from Leeds United, to compete with Ben Voase for that number one shirt.

Costello, who admitted he was close to leaving at the end of the 2023/24 season, says he opted to stay due to the ambition of the new ownership. He appointed Denny Ingram to assist him in the dugout this season.

Pre-season saw Bridlington Town face sides of differing abilities. Against National League North opposition in Scarborough Athletic and Farsley Celtic, they gave a good account of themselves on both occasions - losing 2-0 and drawing 1-1, respectively. 

Both away games ended in 1-0 victories, against Goole AFC and Harrogate Railway. The Seasiders did pick up defeats against the likes of Hallam and Beverley, though the primary focus was on getting minutes into players’ legs.

The final pre-season game was against Bridlington Town Reserves, a family day which saw the two Bridlington sides face off, with an opportunity for supporters to meet the new owner before the match. 

There were plenty of positives to take from the 4-1 win, including goals for local lads Scotter and Ripley, as well as Davidson playing 45 minutes on his return from injury.

Players who were absent from that game for various reasons, including Doyle, Markham, Attree, are all expected to return for the Birtley game, possibly alongside some of the injured players.

Birtley play their football in the Northern League Division One, one league below the Seasiders. It is expected that it won’t be an easy match, however, as there are always strong sides in that league, as Bridlington Town learned in last season’s FA Cup, losing 3-0 to Bishop Auckland, who have since been promoted to the Northern Premier League East.

Despite finishing fourth last campaign, it has not been a good start for Birtley, who lost their opening league game away from home 3-0 against Penrith. 

Whilst the Seasiders have two training sessions to prepare for the FA Cup tie, Birtley drew 1-1 at North Shields on Wednesday evening.