Tividale FC

Report

Midland Football League
Premier Division
Saturday 22nd March 2025
Romulus 3-1 Tividale

We Must Take Our Chances

With centre midfielders  Jason Wood and Eddie Rann both unavailable, (Eddie due to the Heathrow Airport chaos). Callum Lloyd serving the second of his two match ban and centre halves Raheem Akhtar and Matt Holland although both started were both carrying injuries. This always looked a difficult ask.

Manager Phil Rann had the headache of replacing the Tividale engine room and did so by moving Alfie Higgs from his #10 role and Jordon Sangha from the right side of midfield into the middle of the park. Ranny then put Ethan Delaney down the right and Nathan Guest came in on the left side. Lewis Derrick started in the #10 role.

The game started poorly from both sides but Tividale were punished on 15 minutes when the old bad habit of giving away silly free kicks around their penalty area reared its ugly head again and an unmarked Ben Graham headed Romulus ahead. Tividale nearly struck back immediately when an Ezekiel Agyemang effort went wide of the Romulus post.

Romulus where two goals up in the 22nd minute when forward Sean Devlin broke down the Tividale left, laid the ball back to Tristan Bennett and his shot beat keeper Ethan Hawke. And although the keeper did get a hand to it he could not keep the shot out.

On 28 minutes Tividale had a great chance of cutting the deficit when a ball into the Romulus box had Higgs not sure of heading it goal bound or chesting it down to get a strike off and in the end he did neither. Tividale had another great chance in the 32nd minute when Holland met a Derrick corner with a goal bound header but Rom’s keeper Lewis Gwilliams made a brilliant stop and the Rom’s defence scrambled the ball clear.

Tividale continued to press and Delaney saw his shot turned around the post by Gwilliams and then the keeper took a Higgs shot comfortably. With a minute of the half left Sangha shot wide before Rom’s had the last chance of the half  when Bennett was able to get a shot off that Hawke dealt with

Half Time:- Romulus 2-0 Tividale

The second half was much the same with Tividale doing most of the running but Rom’s standing firm and not being easy to break down. Actually, it was the home side with the first effort of the half. A neat ball from Rio Sawyers into Devlin and it took the alert Holland to block his shot.

Tividale were back in the game on 54 minutes when Delaney won the ball in the middle of the park and laid the ball off to Sangha whose shot was blocked but the ball fell nicely for Guest who beat Gwilliams with a crisp shot. They had a chance to level it four minutes later when Guest rolled in Derrick but his shot lacked the power to trouble Gwilliams.

As Tividale poured on the pressure they were hit by a sucker punch in the 61st minute. A long ball over the top found substitute Alfie Taylor who looked offside. With no flag, Taylor carried the ball forward and chipped the onrushing Hawkes.

The goal and a host of substitutions (including three of the back four) due to injuries meant that Tividale could not build the momentum to make a sustained assault on the Rom’s defence and there best chances in the remainder of the game was a Joe Carrington header that went wide and a Delaney shot that Gwilliams turned around the post in injury time.

Full Time:- Romulus 3-1 Tividale

Tividale:- 1.Ethan Hawkes, 2. Tom Rann, 3. Sam Bratt-Wyton (14. Nashawn Blake 77), 4. Jordon Sangha, 5. Raheem Akhtar (12. Myles Durham 73), 6 Matt Holland (16. Joseph Garrington 66), 7. Ethan Delaney, 8. Alfie Higgs, 9. Ezekiel Agyemang, 10. Lewis Derrick (15. Callum McKenna 62), 11. Nathan Guest

Unused Subs:– 13. Oliver Sangha,