Bromsgrove Sporting 2 (0) v (0) 1 Fairfield Villa
Smedley Crooke Cup Saturday 18 February 2012
After three weeks break due to the poor weather Bromsgrove Sporting edged a scrappy encounter against local rivals Fairfield Villa with a 2-1 victory.
The game didn't spring to life until the later stages and in a poor first half the key moment was when Fairfield keeper Owen Hancox who was playing with his knee heavily strapped damaged it again making a clearance. The unfortunate keeper struggled on until half-time but had to be replaced by substitute Marc Rogers.
Whilst Fairfield looked the brighter side Sporting's defence looked sharper than their Fairfield counterparts and the only causes for alarm were a couple of clearances by keeper Chris Mole which were closed down by attackers who were unlucky that the ball fell to safety as it came off them rather than back into a scoring position.
The action really started on 70 minutes when Jamie Hatfield cleared a shot off the Fairfield goal-line as Sporting almost capitalised from a corner.
The deadlock was broken on 78 minutes as Fairfield failed to clear their lines properly and Jon Rogers latched onto a through ball to hit a strike that substitute keeper Rogers got a hand to but was unable to keep out. One nil became two as a header from a corner by substitute Bradley Williamson wrong footed the keeper and crept inside the post on 81 minutes.
The game should have been wrapped up at that point but a spirited reply from Fairfield saw Slevin rattle the Sporting crossbar before Hatfield's header was adjudged to have crossed the line to make it 2-1 on 83 minutes.
Fairfield pushed on to try and take the game into extra-time but ultimately came up short as Sporting were able to hang on for a 2-1 win and a semi-final place in the Smedley Crooke Cup.
Sporting line up: Mole, Fellows, Roberts (Harris), Martin, Thurbon, Brookes, Draper, Wilkes, Rogers Jon (Molesworth) Turk, Banner (Williamson). Subs not used: Rogers G, Jenvey
Fairfield line up. Hancox (Rogers), Hatfield, Pratt, Parish, Frost, Slevin, Beagan, McGlen, Gaffney (Rousell), Sproston, Smith
Cards: - none.
Man of the Match - Sporting - Jon Rogers, Fairfield - Slevin |