West Midland Regional League

Premier Division

Saturday 21st April 2018

Bewdley Town 0-1 Tividale

Difficult day, down by the river.

This one was never going to be easy but with what looked like a big slice of good fortune to set them on their way. Tividale still managed to make it even more difficult than it needed to be.

This one was never going to be easy but with what looked like a big slice of good fortune to set them on their way. Tividale still managed to make it even more difficult than it needed to be.

The changes for this latest encounter were a return of goalkeeper Ryan Cheshire, Centre back Dan Bryson, and frontman Dan Smith. Replacing youth team keeper Lewis Handley, defender Freddie Watts, and midfielder Elliott Hartley.

The home side could have taken the lead after just 5 minutes when Luke Morris fired wide when in a great position. Demetri Brown was foiled on 8 minutes and Dan smith volleyed wide a Bradley welding cross on 12.

After the opening action the game then quietened down and it was not until the 26th minute when either goal was threatened and it became the talking point of the whole game. A through ball was picked up by Smith and the assistant raised his flag for offside. The game continued and Smith was felled. The referee Mr Robinson then blew for the foul ignoring the assistants offside flag. This decision infuriated the Bewdley side (the officials claiming the initial ball to Smith came off a Bewdley player last).

To make matters worse from the Darragh Bustin free kick centre back Ben Birch headed home. The rest of the half became a little tasty as the tackles came flying in and the were a couple of “handbag” incidents.

Despite the heated exchanges Tividale controlled the half and had another great chance when Smith got to the Bewdley by line, rolled the ball back to Bustin but he fired over. They had an even better one on the stroke of half time, again Smith and Bustin the architects. Smith took a neat touch to take the ball in his stride and laid the ball off to Bustin, who played a delightful reverse ball to Joe Lawley on the edge of the Bewdley penalty box but his first time effort curled just over the crossbar.

Half-time:-Bewdley Town 1-0 Tividale

After the events of the first half it was understandable that the second would be a quieter affair. Tividale were still the more likely to add to their score and Welding’s pile driver was parried to Wilkinson but his header lacked pace and did not trouble the keeper.

Lewis Pountney had Bewdley’s best chance of the game but his effort was saved by Cheshire. Then a Morris free kick cleared the Tividale bar as the home side tried to get back into the game.

Their chances of getting something out of the game increased massively when on 80 minutes Lawley was shown a second yellow card when he got involved in another one of those annoying fracases and was dismissed for “adopting an aggressive attitude”.

Bewdley understandably then dominated the last 10 minutes but never really threatened the Tividale goal and in the end they deservedly took the three points home with them.

Full-time:-Bewdley Town 1-0 Tividale

Tividale:-1.Ryan Cheshire, 2. Tom Hurdman, 3. Bradley Welding, 4. Ben Birch, 5. Dan Bryson 6. Joe Lawley 7. Liam Wilkinson, 8. Curtis Cocking (12. Lee Smith 52), 9. Dan Smith (17. Tyree Clarke 76), 10. Demetri Brown ( 15. Elliott Hartley 83), 11. Darragh Bustin.

Unused Subs:-.14. Karl Gardner, 16. Chris Bladen.