Tividale FC

Report

Midland Football League
Premier Division
Saturday 5th October 2019
Walsall Wood 2-1 Tividale

Tividale left Oak Park with no points but were happy in the fact that they matched last seasons runners up and one of this seasons title favourites for the majority of the game but just came up short.

With Manager Dave King on a well earned break, Assistant Kieran Bustin took charge in the dug out, but it was the Boss’s team. With Liam Wilkinson unavailable and Brad Welding injured. It was a 4-3-3 line up that Tividale went into this game with.

The home side had the first real chance after 5 minutes when full back Phil McKerdy played in Harry Harris but his shot sailed over the bar. Darragh Bustin had Tividale’s first chance on 16 minutes when after a slip by Walsall skipper Cameron Lee it let in Bustin but his shot was well held by Wood keeper Lloyd Ransome’s low down to his right.

Tividale had another terrific chance in the 23rd minute when Lewis Probert cashed in on a loose pass, found Tyree Clarke but his shot went across the face of Ransome’s goal and the wrong side of the post. Wood nearly went ahead 3 minutes later when Tividale keeper Louis Connor spilt a speculative shot from a Harris. He was able to clear the ball at the second attempt but it landed again to Harris and the keeper with the help of his back line did well to get the ball away for a corner.

Unfortunately for Tividale Wood went ahead from the resulting corner in the 26th minute. The Harris corner cleared everyone in the area and fell to Joey Butlin who swung the ball back into the box. This time it was met by Kris Taylor and his crisp header beat Connor to put the home side 1-0 up. Tividale were immediately back on the front foot and after some good work from Jake Webb who found Dan Smith but he dragged his shot wide. Tividale then gave away a needless free kick on the edge of their box but Butler shot wide.

Tividale had two good chances to draw level within 5 minutes. First on 35 minutes a Bustin long throw was headed on by Freddie Watts to Clarke but his instinctive header was turned over by Ransome. Then another well worked passage of play resulted in a Luke Carter header that had Ransome scrambling across his goal line to collect. Connor then did well to keep the deficit at 1-0 going into half time when saving a Jack Till shot with his legs

Half Time:- Walsall Wood 1-0 Tividale

The beginning of the second half was a quite affair and the first piece of goal mouth action resulted in the home side going 2-0 up in the 51st minute. Harris’s neat ball out to Chad Degville-Cross found the winger with time and space to find an unmarked Till in the 6 yard box and despite Connor getting a hand to his shot he could not keep the ball out.

With the buffer of the second goal Wood were now look a little more comfortable in possession and should have increased their lead in the 62nd minute when from a throw Tividale failed to clear their lines and the ball fell for Max Loveridge but he blazed his shot over the bar.

The introduction of Kyle Bramley in the 67th minute with his direct running and harassing of defenders gave the home defence something different to think about and Tividale were now going for broke and in the 70th minute Ransome had to be quick off his line to foil Smith with a smart save with his feet and putting the ball out for a corner.

On 79 minutes Tividale halved the deficit with a goal from nowhere. A Bustin cross to the far post looked to have evaded everyone and looked a certain goal kick, but Smith never gave it up. He kept the ball in play chipped the ball to Bramley on the penalty spot, whose first touch was to control the ball with his instep and his second was to volley the ball into the top right hand corner of Ransome’s net.

Straight from the kick off Tividale won back the ball and Tividale sub Cameron Milne put the ball into the Walsall Wood danger area for the full of running Smith who although got to the ball he was adjudged to have been clipped by McKerdy on the edge of the box. Once referee Jamie Howe had given the foul it was inevitable that the full back was going to receive a straight red card. From the resulting free kick Ransome pulled of the save of the game when he came from nowhere to get to Luke Carter’s free kick that looked for all money to be heading for the bottom right hand corner of the net.

That was Carter’s last but one piece of action because three minutes later and with the game going into the dying minutes his last was a rash challenge on Wood’s substitute Garfield Robinson and again referee Howe had no choice but to also show him a straight red. In what was the last of the afternoon’s action

Tividale:- 1. Louis Connor, 2. Tom Hurdman, 3. Lewis Probert (12. Cameron Milne 67), 4. Freddie Watts, 5.Dan Bryson, 6. Matt Hunt, 7. Jake Webb (14, Kyle Bramley 67), 8. Luke Carter, 9. Tyree Clarke, 10. Darragh Bustin, 11. Dan Smith.

Unused Subs:- 15. Jacob Barnes, 16. Richard Hanson, 17. Luke Brookes