Tividale FC

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Midland Football League
Premier Division
Tuesday 4th February 2020
Tividale 0-1 Worcester City

Deja Vu for Tivi

At the moment Tividale must be feeling that they just cannot catch a break. Against an ever improving Worcester City side. Tividale gave as good as they got in a performance of pure grit and determination but just as it was a fortnight ago in the League Cup fixture two weeks ago. A Sean Brain goal was the difference between the sides.

Tividale made just the one change from the side that earned themselves a draw against Romulus on Saturday with Cameron Milne coming in for the injured Tyree Clarke. This resulted in a slight formation change, with Darragh Bustin up as Dan Smith’s strike partner and Milne coming into midfield.

Ex Tividale striker Demetri Brown had the first chance of the game in the 4th minute but he scuffed his shot and Tividale keeper Adam Harrison watched it drift wide. City defender Sam Hall then did well to get back and clear as Milne was put through on goal. Bustin then whipped a ball across the City area in the 12th minute and City keeper Gabriel Bajrami had to palm it away.

Brown then had another effort on goal in the 20th minute. This time Jamie Smith played him in but again he thrashed his shot wide of the post. Three minutes later and a Luke English long throw was met by fellow full back Joe Hawkins and his header was cleared off the line despite the protest’s of the City players that it had gone over the line. On the half hour, following a Jamie Smith free kick that was half cleared by Tividale’s Luke Carter, it came back out to English whose shot went wide.

Tividale finished the half the stronger. No one could get a touch to Bustin’s corner that was fired across the 6 yard box in the 35th minute and three minutes later a Cocking cross was eventually cleared for a corner by Hall after the panic button was hit in the Worcester defence.

Half Time:-Tividale 0-0 Worcester City

The visitors were much more composed after the half time break and began to exert some pressure on the home side. Tividale skipper Dan Bryson did well to deny Brown a shooting chance 10 minutes in and a minute later Liam Lockett blazed over the Tividale bar from 8 yards out.

The Bryson challenge proved to be Brown’s last act of the half and he was replaced by Sean Brain on 58 minutes. Brain’s first touch of the game was to run onto a Jordan Harrison through ball but Tividale’s Alex Harrison was alert to the danger and saved the subs shot with his legs. Tividale then had two great chances to go ahead First on 62 minutes Dan Smith could not find the target with his back post header from a Brad Welding cross and then Smith turned provider in the 64th minute when his cross fell to Luke Carter at the far post but the midfielder put his shot over the bar.

Those two misses proved costly because on 67 minutes Worcester took the lead. A hopeful punt up field and Welding seemed to have it covered but just as he went to nod it back to his keeper, he slipped and he failed to get a decent connection on the header and it dropped short of the advancing Harrison and in front of Brain who rounded the stranded keeper and side footed into an empty net.

Tividale then took the game to the visitors but just could not find that decisive pass in the final third as the balls they delivered into the City area failed to find a touch from a Tividale player and where dealt with by the City defence. They did have one great chance on 87 minutes to get an equaliser when a Bryson pass found Ryan Boothe on the edge of the City box but his shot was palmed over the bar by keeper Bajrami.

In the end the visitors held on to take the three points home with them and left Tividale ruing the string of missed chances. But we brush ourselves down and move onto our next adventure.

Full Time:-Tividale 0-1 Worcester City