A fantastic Mark Bellingham header was enough to separate Bromsgrove Sporting and Atherstone Town as Sporting continue to apply the pressure on second place Nuneaton after this 2-1 win.
Atherstone had the first effort of the match after captain, Lee Smith headed the ball down to the feet of Kyle Bishop, whose shot lacked any power to cause trouble for Jake Bedford.
Bromsgrove's opening chance came inside 10 minutes thanks to the tricky footwork of Darius Darkin that enabled him to find space outside of the box and curl a shot wide of Phil Smith's top right corner of the goal.
Atherstone's defence was struggling to deal with the pace of Bromsgrove's Sean Williams, all afternoon and his left winged cross in the opening stages of the match almost caused Atherstone's Daniel Creaney to header into his own net.
The visitors best chance of the first half came after George Brindley found the head of Lee Smith whose headed effort was cleared of the Sporting line by Joe Cole.
The Rouslers could have been two-nil up at the break but Matt Poyner's twisting shot during the final few minutes bounced wide of the goalkeepers far post, followed by some great build up play between Poyner and Bellingham in injury time with the pair both having a shot blocked by the Atherstone defence.
After the re-start the Rouslers wasted no time at all, taking the lead after one minute. The ball found the feet of winger Billy Russell who went clean through and managed to dink the ball just over Smith's right hand and into his bottom right corner of the net.
The home sides lead lasted only five minutes after Atherstone capitalised from a set-piece. Daniel Creaney flicked the ball towards the back post, finding Darren Eggleston who struck the ball into the net, leaving the scoreline at 1-1.
Bromsgrove's Mark Bellingham attempted to regain the lead for the home side minutes after the goal but his twisting effort on goal deflected over the crossbar.
During the final stages of the match a pinpoint accurate long ball from Sporting found Bellingham just inside the box, who capitalized on the pace of the ball and re-directed it into Phil Smith's bottom right hand corner with a fantastic header.
Phil Smith could have worsened the score line for the away side during the final few minutes of the match after being outside his area when Billy Russell shot towards goal. The low shot was hit straight at Smith who managed to block the effort with his foot, keeping the final score at 2-1 to Bromsgrove Sporting.
Bromsgrove Sporting still remain in third place, three points behind Nuneaton Griff in second, but with a game in hand. Bromsgrove's next league match is away at Stafford Town on Saturday 1st March.
Attendance: 270
Bromsgrove Sporting: Jake Bedford, Brett Mander, Daniel Ludlow, Lewis Clarke, Joe Cole, Daniel Morris, Billy Russell, Darious Darkin, Mark Bellingham, Sean Williams SUB: Sam Wilkinson Chris Heath, Jack Wilson, Paul Heath, Will Tibbetts
Atherstone Town: Phil Smith, Hayden Wright, Darren Eggleton, Matt Selvester, Christian Mullings, Lee Chapman, George Brindley, Daniel Creaney, Kyle Bishop, Greg Webb, Lee Smith SUB: Liam Bailey, Steve Olanipenkan, David Boal, Ashley Green |