West Midland Regional League

Premier Division

Saturday 23rd December 2017

Tividale 5-1 Dudley Town

Brown goes to town on Dudley

Against a Dudley Town side that will surely soon begin to climb the table based on the effort that they put into this performance. After what was a poor start to the game for Tividale it was a case of once they got into their stride they then ran out comfortable winners and took another vital three points and stayed at the top of the league for Christmas.

Tividale made just the two changes to the side that drew with Wednesfield in mid week. With Dan Bryson and Liam Smith replacing Liam Wilkinson and Dan Smith who both had suffered knocks in the last game.

It was Dudley that started the game like the side riding high at the top of the league and were nearly ahead after just three minutes when Shawn Devonport was quickest to react when Tividale keeper Ryan Cheshire failed to hang on to a Dudley free kick and he was there to poke the ball home, only for it to be ruled out for offside.

Tividale failed to heed the warning and on 10 minutes after an attack broke down Dudley broke free and Devonport was left one on one with Tividale’s Tom Hurdman and the defender brought down the forward in the area and Devonport stroked the spot kick home. Tividale’s first real threat came on 18 minutes when a Demetri Brown cross was met by Darragh Bustin but his header was well saved by Dudley keeper Ash Horton. 5 minutes later and another Brown cross was this time nodded down by Bustin for Tyree Clarke but his fierce drive was blocked by Dudley defender Alex Byatt.

On 27 minutes Tividale were level. Brown did well to hold off the challenge of his marker Daryl Hand and cut into the left hand side of the box and from an acute angle fired the ball over the head of Horton and into the back of the net.

Dudley had a couple of chances to regain the lead first on 31 minutes when Todd Ferrier shot over from inside the box and then a couple of minutes later he played in Leon Naylor but his shot was saved by Cheshire. On 37 minutes Tividale took the lead Joe Lawley wins the ball in the middle of the park and plays in Clarke but although his shot is parried by Horton, Brown was on hand to collect the ball round the keeper and pass the ball home.

Half-time:-Tividale 2-1 Dudley Town

 
With the half time lead Tividale were now showing a lot more composure and Brown went close to his hatrick on 52 minutes when he shot over the bar when put through by Curtis Cocking. Devonport was still looking dangerous for the visitors and on 54 minutes he seemed to have slipped the attention of Karl Gardner, but as he bore down on goal the Tividale skipper did enough to recover and put enough pressure on the forward to force a wayward shot from the forward.

On 56 minutes it was 3-1, again Brown causing all sorts of problems down the Dudley left and his low drive somehow beats Horton at his near post for his hatrick.

The rest of the game was played at a leisurely pace by Tividale as the effort exerted by the visitors began to tell in the final third of the game. The home side cashed in on there higher fitness levels with a couple of goals in the last 4 minutes of the game. First Bustin lashed home Tividale’s 4th on 86 minutes and then Nathan Jones finished off the scoring beating Horton with a shot from 10 yards.

Full Time:-Tividale 5-1 Dudley Town

Tividale:-1.Ryan Cheshire, 2. Tom Hurdman, 3. Darragh Bustin, 4. Karl Gardner (14. Nathan Jones 64), 5. Daniel Bryson, 6.Liam Smith, 7. Joe Colley, 8. Curtis Cocking, 9. Tyree Clarke 10. Demetri Brown (16. Bradley Welding 88), 11. Joe Lawley (15. Liam Wilkinson 78).

Unused Subs:-.12. Elliott Hartley, 17. Harvey Walker.