CHARLIE FAULKNER ON TARGET AGAIN AS TOWN ARE HELD AT SPORTING
Bromsgrove Sporting - 3 - McKenzie 47 Brain 60 Gibson 83
Stratford Town - 3 - Gregory 34 (pen) Stringfellow 68 Faulkner 88
An exquisite strike from Charlie Faulkner two minutes from time rescued a draw for Town as their pre-season schedule continued with a visit to Bromsgrove Sporting on Tuesday evening.
The 17 year old had made a big impression at the weekend with a goal and a goal line clearance against Worcester City, and he built on that at the Victoria Ground with a sublime finish just as it looked as if the Midland League Division 1 side would pull off a bit of an upset after a spirited second half performance had seen them come back from trailing to a Richard Gregory penalty at the interval.
Town took a squad of 20, and everyone had game time with only Emmitt Delfouneso and Gary Moran featuring for the entire 90 minutes.
Sporting had beaten FC Stratford 7-4 in a pre-season fixture on the DCS’s 3G pitch ten days ago, and they were first to threaten here with Aaron Roberts grazing the bar with a header from a free kick with just eight minutes gone.
Town responded with Alex Price having a fierce effort pushed away at full stretch by keeper Shaun Edwards followed by more action at the other end with Chris Conway having a shot blocked and Unit Eninoglu’s follow-up deflected behind.
The game was being played at a decent tempo but both sides were struggling to create any clearcut openings with the final pass often letting them down, and when Town went ahead in the 34th minute it was a goal out of nothing.
Joe Halsall was bundled over by a combination of Brendan Kelly and Reece Hewitt as he challenged for a deep cross from the left and the referee immediately pointed to the spot. Up stepped Gregory and his cheeky chip straight down the middle as Edwards dived right gave Town a half time lead.
Carl Adams made six changes for the restart but inside two minutes Sporting had been gifted an equaliser when a misunderstanding between Aaron Stringfellow and Andy Kemp in dealing with a long pass down the Sporting left allowed substitute Josh McKenzie to run on and roll the ball into the empty net.
This gave Sporting just the morale boost they needed and they began to look the more dangerous of the two sides. Dan Burke did well to head away a teasing cross from Roberts and on 55 minutes Sporting sent on the ex-Town Youth team striker Sean Brain.
Clearly keen to make an impact he soon tested Kemp with a crisp right footer from the edge of the penalty area before being in the right place to slide the ball past Kemp from close range on the hour mark to put Sporting ahead.
That lead was only to last eight minutes as Town put together their best move of the match to draw level again. Halsall and Aaron Moses-Garvey exchanged passes on the right before Moses-Garvey released the overlapping Stringfellow into the penalty area and he lashed the ball into the roof of the net past the helpless substitute keeper Jake Bedford.
Back came Sporting with Brain going close with a shot from a corner and then even closer after outpacing the Town backline and sliding the ball wide as James Cutts - who had replaced Kemp - came out to challenge.
Faulkner came on for Halsall soon after and immediately showed his confidence with a useful attempt from 20 yards out which was well held by Bedford getting down low to his right.
But with the game becoming more and more stretched it was Sporting who retook the lead on 83 minutes when Ollie Gibson ghosted through two or three unconvincing Town tackles to steer the ball past the advancing Cutts, and that looked to be the decider until Faulkner produced his moment of magic with two minutes left.
Receiving a pass from Stringfellow on the right of the penalty area with his back to goal his control was instant as all in one movement he swivelled to make an extra yard of space and then unerringly drilled the ball across Bedford into the far corner of the net.
“What a tremendous goal” beamed Carl Adams from the touchline as for the second game in a row the youngest player on the field provided the main talking point at the final whistle.
TOWN : Andy Kemp (James Cutts 61), Emmitt Delfouneso, Gary Moran, Marcel Simpson (Luke Fox 61), Liam Francis (Dan Burke 46), Alex Price (Aaron Stringfellow 46), Jamie Sheldon (Aaron Moses-Garvey 46), Joe Halsall (Charlie Faulkner 73). Dior Angus (Kevin Charley 46), Richard Gregory (Edwin Ahenkorah 46), Robbie Thompson-Brown (Scott Hadland 46).
The View From The Dug Out - Carl Adams reflects on an evening when Town failed to fire
“In a way our performance here was similar to Banbury. There was not enough application, and maybe we thought it would be a more comfortable match than it turned out to be.
But all credit to Bromsgrove who made it extremely difficult for us particularly in the second half. |