Match Report
West Midland Regional League
Premier Division
Saturday 15th December 2018
Bewdley Town 3-1 Tividale
Tivi are downed by the riverside
For the second game in the last three league outings Tividale tasted defeat, and as was the case against Bilston, Tividale can have no complaints regarding the result as the best team on the day won the game.
Tividale for possibly the first time in three season’s, had to use the availability of players to dictate the line up and how they were to play. With Liam Wilkinson, Reece Shilvock, Elliott Hartley and Lee Smith all unavailable for this game. Ben Birch serving the last of his three match suspension and Dan Smith serving the second of his three game ban. Added to that was Matt Hunt and Tyree Clarke the long term injured.
So boss Dave King started with a 4-4-2 formation bringing in Tom Hurdman at right back, Freddie Watts pushed out to left back with Dan Bryson and Karl Gardner at centre backs. Harvey Walker and Curtis Cocking in the middle of the park with Brad Welding and Darragh Bustin pushed forward as wide midfielders with Rion Francis-Mills and Demetri Brown up top.
It was the visitors who made the early running and were ahead after 7 minutes. Welding the supplier with a pass that Brown tucked under the advancing Joe Sidaway in the Bewdley goal and into the back of the net. Undaunted by going behind, Bewdley went onto the front foot and pressed the visitors back and on 10 minutes Tom Smith flashed a shot wide of Cheshire’s post. Then on 13 minutes Cheshire somehow blocked a point blank Bewdley header.
Tividale survived that initial scare and had a chance of their own on 22 minutes when Brown was through on goal but got crowded out by Bewdley defenders. The ball broke to Francis-Mills whose shot was blocked and Sidaway saved the rebound from Brown. Bewdley’s Sam Lester then hit a free kick wide after Walker was booked for handball.
With the wind at gale level and the rain coming down like stair rods, Bewdley nearly went ahead when a speculative forward ball from Russ Godfrey had Cheshire back pedalling and at full stretch tipping the ball over his crossbar. Then a Smith corner was headed over by Luke Sidaway.
Bewdley equalised on 35 minutes when Welding was adjudged to have brought down a Bewdley forward in the penalty area and Ollie Mulders turned the ball home at the third attempt after Cheshire had saved his initial shot and the first rebound he had. The home side were now holding the upper hand and could have took the lead on 42 minutes when Callum Martin headed over a Mulders free kick. The reprieve was only for a minute when a wind assisted Martin cross deceived Cheshire, sailed over the keeper, hit his back post and bounced into the net. Three minutes later it was 3-1 to the home side and as fortunate as Martin’s first goal was their was nothing fortunate about his second a ball from Tom Smith into the Tividale box was headed down by Luke Sidaway on the edge of the Tividale box and Martin volleyed the knockdown wide of Cheshire and into his bottom right hand corner of the net.
Taking nothing from Bewdley coming back to lead 3-1 at the break after being a goal down. But the half was memorable for one major incident. Tividale skipper Dan Bryson was going to get booked for what looked like dissent, when to the amazement of everyone on the ground the referee followed the yellow card with a red one, indicating that this was his second booking of the game. Now considering that it was Walker who had been booked minutes earlier, the whole of the Tividale team confronted the referee pointing out what he had done and it was a mistake. After what must have been 6 to 7 minutes the referee with the aid of one of his assistant finally got it right and rescinded the red card.
Half Time:- Bewdley Town 3-1 Tividale
With no ease to the wind and rain in the second period it was always going to be a tough 45 minutes. Tividale looked to have switched back to a 5-3-2 formation and the second half was only 7 minutes old when Tividale had the ball in the Bewdley net. With Francis-Mills heading home, but once again the officials came up with what seemed to be a surprising decision. They deemed that a push had occurred somewhere prior to the ball hitting the back of the net and they ruled the goal out.
With conditions worsening by the minute, it was now no more than a lottery as players struggled to keep their feet, pass to players in their own shirt and time their tackles. It was now beginning to look more like a Wolf Run than a football match but both teams tried their best but with a two goal lead it was always going to be easier for the home team to stand and defend the edge of their area.
Despite the terrible conditions there was spates of good play. Luke Sidaway headed over on 55 minutes and Smith had stunner of a shot well held by Cheshire on the hour. The last 30 minutes possession was dominated by Tividale but they just could not get the goal that gets them back in the game. The best being on 75 minutes Welding galloped onto a ball over the top and finished with a shot that looked to be arrowing into Joe Sidaway’s near corner until the young keeper stuck out a leg and blocked the shot.
With 10 minutes to go Tividale’s Bustin just could not get a clean connection onto a Welding cross and could only screw the ball wide of the target. That was literally the last threat the visitors had on the Bewdley goal as the two goal margin proved enough on the day.
Full Time:- Bewdley Town 3-1 Tividale
Tividale:-1. Ryan Cheshire, 2. Tom Hurdman (12. Alex Cameron 62), 3. Bradley Welding, 4. Karl Gardner, 5. Dan Bryson, 6. Freddie Watts, 7. Darragh Bustin, 8. Harvey Walker (15. James Welch 80). , 9. Rion Francis-Mills (14. Jake Brigdale 70), 10. Demetri Brown. 11. Curtis Cocking
Unused Subs:-None
Lineup
10. Demetri Brown | Goal |
2. Tom Hurdman | |
5. Frederick Watts | |
15. Karl Gardner | |
3. Darragh Bustin | |
7. Harvey Walker | |
16. Bradley Welding | |
11. Curtis Cocking | |
4. Daniel Bryson | |
21. Rion Francis-Mills | |
1. Ryan Cheshire |
Subs
20. Jake Brigdale | Sub21 |
23. James Welch | Sub7 |
25. Alex Cameron | Sub2 |