Sonny's Day

Bradley netted a pretty peculiar 'hat-trick' in the Greens’ 2-1 win at the Lamex Stadium, heading home from free-kicks either side of inadvertently turning into his own net – all within the first quarter-hour of the second half.

 

Sonny kept his cool to more than make up for his own goal, taking full advantage twice more of excellent dead ball deliveries from David Fox and Graham Carey.

 

“It was a brilliant ball, and all it needed was a nick,” said Sonny on the opening goal, flicked into the far corner from Fox’s delivery. “I just a got a little nick on it; whether it deflected the flight of the ball I’m not sure, but I definitely got a nick on it.

 

“I turned around and we were off celebrating – I didn’t even see it go in, so I ran off and celebrated.”

 

As for the own goal: “We said at half-time that we need to stop giving free kicks away. It was a good ball in; I’ve stuck a leg out to try and block it, and it’s come off my shinpad and gone in.

 

“I was a bit upset about that but you just have to move on. I knew that if we stuck to our game plan and kept playing the way we were, we’d come up with a winner. There was only one way to react, and that was to go and keep playing the way we can.”

 

Then came the winner. “When I saw we had a free-kick and seen Graham Carey hovering over it, I knew I was going to get a chance – and if I didn’t get a chance, I knew one of the other lads would get a chance.

 

“A great delivery with the second one, left foot. Again, I couldn’t miss. With service like that, there’s no reason why us centre halves shouldn’t be getting bags of goals.”

 

Bradley and company saw out the final third of the game with a one-goal lead, withstanding pressure from the hosts late on like the Pilgrims have on so many occasions this season.

 

“We pressed for that [third] goal; Jordan Slew had a couple of chances, Jimmy Spencer’s had a couple of chances,” said Sonny. “But when you don’t get that goal, it’s important that you don’t concede again. In the last five minutes we shut up shop, and just made sure we got the three points.

 

“When it’s only a one-goal cushion, you’re always wary that if they get a chance, they could nick a last-minute equaliser. You see it happen hundreds of times in a season, up and down the leagues.

 

“All this week, all I’ve been focused on is winning this game today, and that’s exactly what we’ve done. We’ve worked hard during the week, we’ve put the effort in, and we’ve had a game plan – but we had to change it early on. They [Stevenage] were right on top of us; they wouldn’t let us play out from the back, but we adapted well.

 

“I think we won the battle in the end and I think that showed.”