Cribbs FC v Yate Town
Southern League Division One South
Friday 31st January 2025 - Kick-off 7.45pm
On Friday evening 31st January, Yate Town make the short journey to play Cribbs FC with a 7.45pm kick-off. The Bluebells had originally planned to also play their home game against Cribbs on a Friday night, on Friday 25th October, but as they were still in the FA Trophy playing Hungerford away on 26th October, the game had to be re-arranged and Cribbs visited the South West Interiors Stadium, and won 2-1, on Tuesday 3rd December.
Yate Town welcome back captain Joe Guest, who completed his 2-match suspension last Saturday, when the Bluebells lost at home to Malvern and they will be looking to get back to winning ways on Friday evening. Also, amongst the squad will be forward Nick McCootie, who rejoined the club this week after leaving Weston-super-Mare.
Form Guide
Cribbs FCs currently they sit in 20th position in the league table having won just 6 of their 26 matches and are 8 points from safety but with an inferior goal difference to the teams just outside the bottom four. They have 21 points having also drawn 3 games but lost 17 times, scoring just 21 times and conceding 55 goals. However, amongst their six wins was their 2-1 win at the Southwest Interiors Stadium in early December.
Cribbs then lost 0-5 at Westbury but recorded their last win (2-0) at Thatcham on 17th December and since then have only picked up one point, a 1-1 draw at home to Tavistock on Boxing Day when they were leading through a Ryan Cainey goal only for the visitors to equalise in stoppage time. They have also lost 1-2 at home to Melksham before this and ended the year with a 0-4 loss at Mousehole. Their 3 games in 2025 have seen two home defeats against Evesham (1-4) and Didcot (0-3) and last Saturday after taking an early lead through Ryan Cainey at Helston Athletic were denied victory, or even a draw, when the home side scored twice in stoppage time.
Previous meetings
Last season was the first time that the 2 clubs have met in a first team league match with Cribbs playing in Step 4 for the first time in their history following their promotion from the Hellenic League.
Cribbs had an excellent first season, reaching the play-offs come the end of the season, and the 2 teams met firstly on 16th December at Cribbs with Cribbs winning this encounter 2-1. David Duru opening the scoring after 21 minutes and Bailey Croome added a second after 51 minutes. Bristol City loanee, Callum Hutton, pulled a goal back for Yate five minutes from time but Yate couldn’t create another chance. The game was played in front of a crowd of 177 spectators.
In the return game, played at the South West Interiors Stadium on 20th April, this being the penultimate game of the season, and Cribbs were at this point guaranteed a play off place, whilst despite Yate Town’s excellent second half of the season, the opportunity of a play-off place had all but vanished following a 2-2 draw at Larkhall Athletic 10 days earlier.
The game was full of incident, particularly the closing minutes, with Yate leading 3-1 only for Cribbs to score two goals right at the death. In front of a season’s best crowd of 528, Calum English-Brown put Yate ahead in the 14th minute only for David Duru to draw the sides level 10 minutes later. Nick McCootie put the Bluebells in front on the stoke of half time with a powerful run and shot and increased the lead further with a delicate lob (pictured below) from outside the area in the 89th minute to seemingly secure all three points for Yate.
However, as the clock ticked into stoppage time, Bailey Croome rose unchallenged in the area to pull a goal back for the visitors and shortly afterwards, following a corner from the left, Nick McCootie put the ball into his own net to give the visitors an unlikely point.
This season, on 3rd December, Cribbs in the bottom four, came to the South West Interiors Stadium to play league leaders Yate Town and produced a shock result winning the game 2-1, inflicting Yate Town’s first league home defeat of the season. Spike Weaver gave the visitors the lead after 26 minutes and they expended this lead early in the second half through a Bailey Croome penalty. Despite constant pressure from Yate Town, they could only muster a stoppage time goal through Will Larvin (pictured below) in front of a crowd of 338.
Getting there
Cribbs play their home matches at The Lawns, Station Road, Henbury, Bristol, BS10 7TB. The ground consists of 3 full size grass football pitches and a 3G astro turf. The journey from Yate should take just under half an hour. From the M5, J17, follow the signs to Bristol West & Clifton. On the A4018 dual carriageway, cross one roundabout and when you come to the 2nd roundabout take the 2nd exit (down the old bus lane). At the roundabout after Clifton Rugby Club, take the 3rd exit to The Lawns.
Please note that the car park will not be available until after 6pm.
Next up
It’s TWO home games, against BIDEFORD on Tuesday 4th February (7.45pm) and FALMOUTH TOWN on 8th February (3pm).
BE THERE TO SUPPORT THE TEAM!!
SEE YOU AT THE SOUTH WEST INTERIORS STADIUM.