Pre-season friendly - Saturday 1st August 2015, 3:00 p.m. kick-off
Bromsgrove Sporting 1 (1) Runcorn Town (0) 0
Another competent performance by Bromsgrove Sporting saw then overcome Cheshire side, Runcorn Town by the odd goal.
From the kick-off the home side dominated proceedings keeping Runcorn well pinned back in their own half for much of the match. Some neat passing meant that they had the majority of the possession and made their opponents do a lot of running around.
Sporting took the lead fairly early on when Aaron Williams got a foot to a poor Runcorn back pass that just went past their 'keeper.
Up to then away side appeared to be somewhat truculent, disputing a lot of the referee's decisions and getting quite bad-tempered as they failed to control proceedings. The goal only made things worse and things spilled over on the 20th minute when unusually for a friendly one of the away side's mid-field was sent off for foul and abusive language. Normally the referee would ask the side to make a substitution.
Rather than capitalise on the situation and go for more goals, Sporting appeared to be content sitting on their lead and moving the ball round in an attempt to open up the Runcorn defence.
To be fair to the Cheshire side they defended resolutely but had to work hard but this was at the expense of any attacking play they only came in short bursts.
After the interval Sean Brain had a shot well-saved whilst captain on the day, Brendan Kelly grazed the bar with a fierce 20-yard drive.
Just before the final whistle, Joe Adams will consider himself to be unlucky when after his interchange with Aaron Williams, his shot was also well-stopped.
As with most pre-season friendlies both sides made a number of substitutions in the second half allowing both managers to have a good look at a number of players. Sporting boss Paul Smith should have been impressed by what he saw even if the game was not that entertaining.
Next stop is Dudley Sports on Tuesday evening then the season gets underway next Saturday when Sporting entertain Southam United in the Midland League Division One.
Sporting: Shaun Hayes, Aaron Roberts (Sam Delaney 72 mins), Brendan Kelly (Capt), Simon Fitter, James Poulter (Joe Adams 57 mins), Jamie McKeon (Alex Fleming 86 mins), Sam Wills (Jack O'Connell 63 mins)), Aaron Williams, Sean Brain (Ollie Gibson 63 mins), Luke Corbett, Reece Hewitt (John Pykett 72 mins)
Scorer: Aaron Williams (14 mins)
Crowd: 145
Referee: Mr M Steward (Redditch)
Assistants: Mr R Crook, Mr W Cemis.
Weather: Warm, cloudy
Reporter: Phil Baker |