Walsall Senior Cup

1st Round

Tuesday 13th February 2018

Tividale 2-1 Pelsall Villa

At last !!!!

After 3 months of postponed games, switching venues and even the thought of tossing a coin to decide the winners, this fixture finally took place and in the end it was Tividale who won through to a second round tie away at Sporting Khalsa.

If Tividale thought this was going to be an easy night in light of Pelsall’s league position they were greatly mistaken. The visitors put on a performance that made their league position a complete mystery as they battled and fought for the full 90 minutes despite going two nil down early in the first half.

Manager Dave King made just the two changes to the starting line up in the 2-0 win at Wellington. In came Dan Smith and new signing TJ Munthali made his first start after coming on as a second half substitute on Saturday. With Demetri Brown and Joe Lawley dropping to the bench.

It was the visitors who had the first decent chance when Jamarley Rouse let fly with a fierce shot that had power but lacked direction. Although Tividale had all the early possession it was not until the 24th minute when Tividale had their first chance on target and in it they also opened the scoring, Dan Smith attacked the Villa back line, played the ball into Tyree Clarke and he turned and fired past Villa keeper Archie Ataglo. 9 minutes later and Tividale doubled their lead. Again plenty of possession ended with a neat little lay off from Liam Wilkinson into the stride of centre back Liam Smith and he fired into the bottom left hand corner in what was his first competitive goal for Tividale.

Tividale were now in complete control and Dan Smith forced Ataglo into a flying save on 40 minutes.

A minute later and Pelsall were unlucky not to have halved the deficit, when after a shot came back off the post and James Bland must have thought he had scored from the rebound as he tapped in what looked like an empty net, but somehow Tividale keeper Ryan Cheshire came from nowhere to get down and turn the ball around the post

Half Time:- Tividale 2-0 Pelsall Villa

The second half was much of the same, Tividale with the possession and probing while Pelsall always looked lively on the counter. On 54 minutes Pelsall pulled one back. Once again Rouse was allowed to run at the defence but this time as he was about to be closed down, unleashed a shot that gave Cheshire no chance. Cheshire then had to be lively to turn another Rouse shot away for a corner.

As the half wore on the Pelsall attacks became sparser as they tired from trying to keep Tividale at bay and the home side kept the ball well and pinned the visitors in their own half and run out the clock.

Tividale did have the final chance when substitute Elliott Hartley went on another of his runs down the left flank, he then whipped in a vicious cross that fellow sub Demetri Brown, met first time but his shot was charged down and that heralded the final whistle in what was a very competitive game

Full Time:- Tividale 2-1 Pelsall Villa