West Midland Regional League

Premier Division

Saturday 25th August 2018

Tividale 3-0 Cradley Town

Cradley Hammered

Tividale went into the first of their tough Bank Holiday derby double on the back of 3 straight league wins and looking in decent form. The first one was against Cradley Town a side that had not started the season to well but would always pose a threat.

Manager Dave King brought back into the starting line up Matt Hunt, Lee Smith , Dan Smith and Tom Hurdman in place of Ben Birch, Liam Smith, Tyree Clarke and Curtis Cocking

In a really frenetic start to the game it was Tividale who had the first effort after only 4 minutes when a first time strike from Lee Smith just cleared the cross bar. Two minutes later and Tividale were in again. This time Dan Smith hassled and won the ball off ex Tividale skipper Richard Huckfield whipped in a cross that Demetri Brown could not steer on target.

The home side had a scare on 8 minutes, when Bradley Welding‘s clearance was charged down by Tyler Douglas and he was clear on goal but fired wide. Tividale took the lead on 9 minutes when a Welding free kick was met at the far post by Dan Smith and he headed home.

The game then went into a quiet period were although the home side had the majority of the possession they never really threatened until the 38th minute when Hurdman played in Brown but he could not find the target. On 45 minutes after some neat work from Brown, Wilkinson got his shot wrong and dragged the ball wide.

It was in first half stoppage time that Tividale doubled their lead. Dan Smith went down after he got the wrong side of Cradley defender Tyler Charris. From the side-line their seemed to be minimal if any contact but the referee pointed immediately to the spot and Brown made no mistake slamming the ball into the bottom right hand corner

Half Time: Tividale 2-0 Cradley Town

Cheshire had to be on his toes again a few minutes later when Kieran Grew raced down the Cradley left and his cross was met first time by O’Connor on the volley but Cheshire did well to turn it over the bar.

From the resulting corner Tividale broke and Wilkinson swept a through ball to Brown who unselfishly rolled the ball to Bustin racing down the right flank and he drilled the ball across Cradley keeper Craig Moule and into the back of the net after 56 minutes. A minute later after some good work by Dan Smith he released Bradley Welding but Moule got down at his right hand post to save.

Again the game petered out as Tividale took complete control and the only real chance in the last quarter of the game was when substitute Rion Francis-Mills found fellow sub Elliott Hartley with his corner but Hartley could not keep his header down.

Full Time:-Tividale 3-0 Cradley Town

Tividale:-1. Ryan Cheshire, 2. Tom Hurdman, 3. Bradley Welding, 4. Karl Gardner (15. Liam Smith 72), 5. Dan Bryson 6. Matt Hunt, 7. Lee Smith, 8. Liam Wilkinson , 9. Dan Smith (14. Rion Francis-Mills 72), 10. Demetri Brown, 11. Darragh Bustin (17. Elliott Hartley 72)

Unused Subs:-12. Ben Birch, 16. Curtis Cocking