Midland Football League

Premier Division
Saturday 17th October 2020
Heather St John 0-2 Tividale

Heather Harried to Defeat

For one of the few times this season Tividale put together excellent back to back performances and got their just rewards.

Following on from the beating they gave Boldmere in the week. They harried and pressed Heather into submission and came away from the picturesque St John’s Ground with 3 valuable points.

The defensive injury curse continued with Tom Hurdman not recovering from the hamstring pull that saw him replaced on Tuesday night. But Jacob Barnes who came off the bench and replaced him was deemed fit enough to start in this one. So that was the only change from the mid-week win.

Both sides started the game very tentatively. With Heather having a lot of the ball but not really causing Tividale any problems and were prone to overplay and lose the ball in dangerous positions but Tividale themselves could not make them pay.

The first shot in anger came in the 18th minute when Cameron Collins tried a shot from well outside the area that Tividale keeper Adam Harrison had no problems with.

In Tividale’s first sortie on 20 minutes Adam Garmson found Dan Smith with a neat pass. He went down under a challenge from Jack Dance on the edge of the box. Smith and a number of the Tividale players appealed for a penalty but referee Benjamin Stott waived play on

Heather’s Edilson Panzo-Antonio then tried his luck from around the same distance as Collins’s effort 4 minutes later with the same result.

in the 26th minute Luke Carter hit the perfect chip over the head of Heather centre back Joe McNulty and into the path of Smith but he tried a first-time volley when he had more time than he realised and Heather keeper James Beeson saved it.

Beeson had to be alert when from a poor clearance on 29 minutes Garmson put the cross in that Dance toe poked for a corner with Smith ready to pounce. But there was no reprieve a minute later on the half hour when Carter found Garmson with a cross field ball out on the left wing and his cross was met by Smith who out jumped Dance and he gave Beeson no chance with a thumping header to put the visitors 1-0 up.

Tividale then allowed Heather right back Chris Hayden way too much room a minute before the break but he also tried a shot from distance but once again Harrison fielded the shot comfortably.

Half Time: Heather St John 0-1 Tividale

Heather had the first chance of the second period on 47 minutes when Jake McLeary failed to get an Antonio cross on target. 5 minutes later and they should have equalised when from a Mitchell Mollison cross Harrison did well to turn away a Daniel Hanson shot but it fell at the feet of Collins but he blasted his shot wide.

Tividale doubled their lead on 67 minutes with a goal that summed up their play all afternoon. it started with a back pass to Besson that Elliott Hartley immediately ran to close down the keeper’s clearance. This forced Beeson to play a ball to his full back Yahiya Todd who himself was under pressure from Garmson. This forced the error with Todd’s attempted pass up field being intercepted by Garmson and the striker blasted the ball past Beeson and into the far bottom corner from 8 yards out.

Eight minutes after the goal, Tividale were down to 10 men when after taking a few petty kicks around his ankles Garmson flicked his leg out at a defender and although he did not connect the referee saw intent and showed the striker a straight red.

Even with the man advantage for the last 15 minutes Heather never really caused the visitors many problems and Tividale closed out the game and earned another clean sheet.

Full Time: Heather St John 0-2 Tividale