British Gas Business Football League - Premier Division Wednesday, 26th December 2007
Bromsgrove Rovers 1 Halesowen Town 0
Bromsgrove Rovers: Lewis; Duggan, Hines, Bridgwater, Knight, McHale, Hollis (Downing 70), Alsop (Benbow 90), Jakat (Albutt 76), Banner, Birley. Unused Subs: Jones, Mole.
Halesowen Town: Osborn; Lycett (Francis 83), Perpetuini, Pearce, Pierpoint, Brennan (Hill 74), Paul, Caskey, Abbey, Maquemba, Devlin (Hicks 74). Unused Subs: Amos, Hamilton.
Referee: J. Adcock Attendance: 615
Booked: Pierpoint (85), Birley (87)
Halesowen dominated for long spells but Bromsgroves direct style of play proved more successful with a solitary early goal proving enough to claim the points in the Boxing Day derby clash.
In early play Darren Caskeys 2nd minute free-kick fell to Zema Abbey but the ball was cleared for a corner. Visiting goalkeeper Mark Osborn then caught the second of two Bromsgrove corners in the 3rd minute and Kevin Banner drove wide three minutes later.
Bromsgrove grabbed the winning and only goal of the game in the11th minute when Banner found himself free on the left and played the ball across goal for Jozsef JAKAT to tap home from close range.
Scott Lycett forced a 15th minute corner for Halesowen with the ball turned back in for Abbey to nod just wide. Former Halesowen-man Simon Hollis then forced Osborn to tip the ball over for a corner with a long-distance effort and the second corner was met by Hollis but Caskey cleared off the line. In further route-one type football, Jakat hit a long-range effort at Osborn on the half-hour.
Halesowen then enjoyed the majority of play without finding the killer touch. Dean Brennan played a through ball for Eldon Maquemba in the 31st minute but goalkeeper Karl Lewis was first to the ball and Brennan played another ball through to Abbey a minute later but Lewis was on hand again to make a good blocking save. Three minutes before the interval an almighty goalmouth scramble in the Bromsgrove area resulted after Paul Devlin cut back from the left with Abbey and Stuart Pierpoint both going close and the visitors were also denied a strong penalty claim after the ball appeared to strike a defending arm.
The Yeltz continued to play neat football going forward after the interval although Osborn made a good save on a 55th minute Bromsgrove break. Shane Paul struck a low shot at Lewis after 57 minutes and Halesowen forced three corners in the 63rd minute but Abbey headed wide with Bromsgrove under the cosh. Maquemba finally had a clear sight of goal in the 65th minute but was unlucky to see his shot rattle back off the crossbar.
But Bromsgrove weathered the storm and the Yeltz proved less of a force after making three substitutions. Another former Halesowen player Les Hines curled a long range free-kick for Osborn to collect after 75 minutes and Osborn collected another long-range effort from Matt Birley on 81 minutes.
Halesowen finally had the ball in the net with four minutes remaining but the referee had already blown for an infringement and in the final minute Lewis held onto a fierce drive from substitute Rodney Hicks. There was still time for Hicks to slice wide in injury time as the Yeltz crashed disappointingly to only their second away league defeat of the season. |