| Chelsea £49, Tottenham Hotspur £37, Arsenal £30, Manchester United £26, Liverpool £25 and Halesowen Town £6.50. Who says that you need to pay a good proportion of your weekly wage to be treated to top class footballing entertainment? Those of us at The Grove yesterday certainly had our value for money in this end to end encounter. |
| Considering that in City's Andy Hoskins and Yeltz's Jason Ashby, the Western Division's two top scorers were on the field, it's rather hard to believe that there weren't any goals in the game today. |
| It was something of a surprise that City's top scorer was available as several people thought that he, Tom Webb and Neil Mustoe were due to start bans. Lee Smith was available again after his three match suspension which, due to postponed games had spanned the best part of a month. Just skipper Neil Griffiths and midfielder Keith Knight were absent witht he former having picked up a stomach injury in training in midweek and Knight still injured. |
| Halesowen have been the best Western Division side to visit Meadow Park this season and other than Ashby players that stood out included ex-Redditch and Solihull Borough winger Simon Hollis, playmaker Ben Steane and former Stourport hotshot Richard Ball. A player who also impressed throughout the game was midfielder Andy Spencer. |
| The Grove is a ground with a raised covered terrace behind one goal, so providing a rather unique backdrop for some of my action shots. Sadly, as we approached England's second city on the police car saturated M5 the sky became more and more overcast, threatening to ruin the day's photography. |
With the entrance fee being more expensive than most in this league, the Halesowen officials were determined to give us more time in the ground for our money by keeping it closed until as close to kick off as possible. The turnstiles hadn't opened by 2.20pm so we went to the unburnt social club for a quick drink as we waited to enter the arena.
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| In the first half Halesowen were easily the better team, aided by home advantage and also Chris Burns' insistence of sticking with the 5-2-3 formation to accomodate Adie Mings. They really should've scored as early as the fourth minute when Ashby faced a Matt Bathless goal but his sidefooted attempt was brilliantly cleared by the retreating Dave Wilkinson. |
| Bath had to be in the right place at the right time to hold a bicycle kick from Richard Ball before City's first hint of an attack came when Yeltz keeper Mark Shiels bravely caught a Neil Mustoe cross under pressure from Mings. |
| More pressure from City came from successive corners before a long range free kick for the home team struck the post with Bath beaten. Jimmy Cox responded for City with a run in from the right wing before getting the ball tangled in his feet and losing posession as he lined up a shot. |
| Matt Bath, playing much better than he has in recent weeks dived to his right to cover a shot that was flying wide before being well placed to hold Andy Spencer's half volley from the edge of the penalty box. He could do nothing however as a free kick was floated to Hollis at the far post and the winger flashed a shot wide across the face of the Tigers' goal. |
| Adam Howarth, on his full debut did his repuation no harm when he shadowed the attacker all the way and got in a last ditch block as the Halesowen forward shot, preventing what looked a goal all the way. |
| Having scored last week Neil Mustoe made a run from midfield to meet Tom Webb's long pass, but the former Man Utd man slipped as he tried to go round the defender on the edge of the box. Webby himself came very close to giving City the lead when his overlapping run on the right gave him the opportunity to shoot, but the ball went inches wide and Hosky slid in just too late to get a touch to what was City's best chance of the half. |
With a minute to go until half time, City fans would've been thankful to go in with a clean sheet. However, Andy Hoskins, suffering from a lack of activity decided to go back and play 'defender'. He almost stopped a Yeltz player's run through on goal but slipped on the wet surface and clumsily dragged the Brummie down. The ref awarded a penalty and the City striker was lucky to get just a talking to when he might've seen red. That was Matty Bath's cue to perform heroics as Ashby's spot kick arrowed straight down the middle and the City keeper held up a firm hand to palm the ball over the bar.
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| I'll never know how we didn't concede a goal in the first half! |
| The penalty save must've buoyed City as they started the second period brightly. The pace of Webb and Cox down the right was the Tigers' main attacking threat had come from and nice play between the two saw the striker denied by a smart dummy from the defender as the ball ran out of play. |
| On-loan striker Adie Mings was withdrawn with less than ten minutes of the half gone and Lee Smith came on, thus moving Tom Webb into midfield and restoring the much favoured Hoskins and Cox partnership upfront. Sadly, on his return to the club Adie has done little more than upset City's rhythm and pattern of play and we're better off without him. |
| The Halesowen defence were caught on their back foot by a Burns long ball as both Tom Webb and Adie Harris had the beating of the Yeltz men. The latter won the race of the City players but keeper Shiels got there first to clear the danger. Harris was the second Adie substituted for City as Chris Thompson made a welcome return to first team action. |
| The officals came into the game midway through the second half when both referee and linesman failed to spot that the defender had sliced the ball out for a corner and gave a goal kick instead. This was followed by the first booking of the afternoon when Hosky's attempt at closing down the full back's clearance saw the City man catch his opponent late. |
| Halesowen's attackers remembered there was a game on as they combined to force Bath off his line to make a smart block wide of his right hand post. At the other end, the Yeltz defence seemed to have pushed up giving Cox plenty of room to run behind them and they had to be alert to deny the City dangerman as he saw his run and shot deflected behind for a corner. From the set piece midfielder Spencer flicked a header into his own side netting. |
Jimmy Cox spurned City's best chance when he met a pinpoint cross from Smith with his head, but the ball went straight to the Halesowen keeper. In reply another long range shot flew inches wide of Bath's right post.
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| Halesowen made their first change when striker Simon Forsdick replaced midfielder Ben Steane. The substitute had already found the net against City twice this season when he bagged a brace for Shepshed Dynamo in the fog shrouded 5-2 win for the Tigers at Meadow Park in December. |
| Cox wasted another chance when Tom Webb played him behind the defence but he hesistated and sent an angled shot well wide. At the other end a smartly hooked volley from the corner of the penalty area brought the best out of Matt Bath's agility as he pushed the shot over the bar. |
| Two bookings in a minute followed as Lee Smith and Asa Charlton seemed to wage a personal war against each other. First Smith saw yellow for cutting down the full back as he advanced up the wing then the Halesowen man was cautioned following a heavy challenge on the City man. |
| Adam Hemming replaced Cox for the final few minutes in what seemed like a time-wasting exersize, but the substitute had a chance to win it as he jinked round the defender before seeing his shot blocked wide for a corner. |
| The home team could've snatched all three points following a corner but for an Andy Hoskins clearance from a cut back and City might've done likewise when Chris Burns headed an injury time corner over the bar. |
| It may have been a goalless drew, but you'd have been hard pressed to find a better game of end to end football between two very good teams. The point keeps City above Halesowen but sees us drop below Sutton Coldfield who beat leaders Redditch United at Coles Lane. |
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