West Midland Regional League

Premier Division

Thursday 23rd April 2018

Shifnal Town 3-0 Tividale

Superb Shifnal stun Tividale

After Tuesday nights performance Tividale headed to Shifnal full of confidence and with the chance to move into second place. Instead they came up against a side and a performance that made a mockery of their lowly position.

On the other hand after just about everything they touched turning to goals on their last outing tonight Tividale could have played all night without finding the net.

Again Ryan Cheshire, Lee Smith, Freddie Watts, Dan Bryson, Liam Smith, Liam Wilkinson, Nathan Jones and Harvey Walker were all unavailable through injury or work commitments. So Lewis handley, Oliver Downing and Tom Trevis from the youth squad were drafted in.

Tividale had the first shot on goal after 10 minutes, Joe Lawley skimmed the crossbar. But Shifnal opened the scoring with their first chance on goal when Kirk Watson beat Handley from close range.

This provoked a flurry of pressure from the visitors, with Demitri Brown, Elliott Hartley and Chris Bladen being denied by a mixture of good defending, fine goalkeeping and a poor final ball.

At the other end, Watson saw his close range shot come off the keeper for a corner, before Brown found himself through on goal on 28 minutes, only for Jake James to make a fine save to prevent a certain goal.

Shifnal weathered the storm, and extended their lead in the 33rd minute. Good work by Watson set up Will Wells, whose 25-yard thunderbolt flew into the net via the far post. 2 minutes before the break, James again came to Town’s rescue with a point-blank save from Hartley’s header.

Half-Time:-Shifnal Town 2-0 Tividale

Tividale came out for the second half pressing for a goal to get them back into the game. Hartley skimmed the crossbar from just outside the penalty area on 50 minutes, then Brown found James too good for him 4 minutes later. Wells and Watson tested Lewis Handley in the visitors’ goal, before Town made certain of maximum points in the 78th minute. Barber’s cross from the left picked out Jonathon Wilkes, whose 12-yard volley gave Handley no chance. In the final minute, Wilkes’ corner was turned onto his own crossbar by Handley as Shifnal finished the stronger of the two sides.

Full-Time:-Shifnal Town 3-0 Tividale

 
Tividale:-1.Lewis Handley, 2.Tom Hurdman, 3.Bradley Welding, 4.Karl Gardner, 5.Ben Birch, 6.Joe Lawley (17.Oliver Downing 81mins), 7.Darragh Bustin, 8.Curtis Cocking, 9.Chris Bladen (15.Tyree Clarke 52mins), 10.Demitri Brown, 11.Elliott Hartley (14. Dan Smith 52mins).

Unused Subs:-.16. Tom Trevis