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Results

TeamGoals
Bewdley Town2
Tividale1

Details

Date Time Competition Season
January 2, 2023 3:00 pm MFL Premier 2022-23

Report

Midland Football League
Premier Division
Monday 2nd January 2023
Bewdley Town 2-1 Tividale

Down by the Riverside

Tividale kicked off the new year how they ended the last, with a tale of what could have been. All down to missed chances and a worldy of a winner. And again it may be debatable whether we deserved to win the game, but we deserved something out of it.

Tividale made two changes to the Walsall Wood starting line-up. With Kamol Campbell unavailable Zac Kourouyianni came in at right back, switching Jack Fletcher to left back. Matt Funge returned to the starting line up at the expense of Jakob Burroughs as Tividale switched to a 4-4-2 line up.

In a very cagey start the first attempt on goal came in the 12th minute when Callum Gillies tested Tividale keeper Peter Hawk with a long range effort that he caught comfortably. A minute later and after Tividale defender David Solademi failed to cut out a long ball through the middle, Bewdley striker Stanford Stewart was adjudged to have been brought down by Fletcher and the referee pointed to the spot. Stanford himself took it and sent Hawk the wrong way.

With Bewdley buoyed by the opening goal they dominated the next 10 minutes play as Tividale were put on the back foot and after another foul on Stanford. This time outside of the box, he shot just over the bar. On 27 minutes and against the run of play Tividale were back in it with a piece of individual class. Jack Downing pounced on a loose ball just inside the Bewdley half and ran at the home defence. As he reached the edge of the Bewdley area and no defender stepping out to challenge him, he unleashed a shot into the bottom left hand corner of the net.

This was the cue for Tividale to take control of the game and they should have gone in at half time in the lead. First a Taylor Townsend free kick had to be turned over by Bewdley keeper Hayden Whitcombe. From the resulting corner a Dan Smith shot was pushed clear by Whitcombe.

On 40 minutes Funge released Smith but his shot went into the side netting. Smith then went on a mazey run down the Bewdley left and his cut back to Townsend was met with a vicious shot that somehow Whitcombe kept out of his net in the 45th minute. From the corner Whitcombe gathered a Townsend shot.

Half Time:-Bewdley Town 1-1 Tividale

Tividale started the second period as they ended the first and again Townsend could not hit the target after being put through by Smith. Bewdley’s first chance for 20 minutes was instigated by full back Cameron East on 49 minutes, when he found Ewan Edwards but his shot sailed high and wide of Hawks post’s.

Their next chance was a screamer. On 54 minutes Tividale failed to clear with any authority a regulation ball into their box and Jordan Graham fired home from the edge of the box giving Hawk no chance. Two minutes later and another Townsend free kick came to nothing. With Tividale desperate for an equaliser and Bewdley defending well and playing on the counter. Kourouyianni played in Cocking on the hour mark, but he also fired wide of the Whitcombe goal.

Hawk then kept Tividale in the game in the 64th minute when he was forced to push away a Edwards free kick and then having to save the rebound. Another Tividale free kick, this time from Malcolm Melvin cleared the bar on 78 minutes and Downing found Smith with ten minutes to go but the striker again fired his shot over the bar. A minute later and Kourouyianni tried to find substitute Ryan Snape but he could not get the first touch right and the ball ran through to Whitcombe.

That was literally the last of the Tividale chances as they could not break down the home side and Bewdley in turn ran down the clock quite comfortably.

Full Time:-Bewdley Town 2-1 Tividale

Tividale: – 1. Peter Hawk, 2. Zac Kourouyianni, 3. Jack Fletcher, 4. Malcolm Melvin, 5. David Solademi (14. Joe Burroughs 57), 6. Matt Hunt, 17. Taylor Townsend, 8. Curtis Cocking (16. Ryan Snape 75),  9. Dan Smith, 10. Matt Funge (16. Jason Wood  64) 11. Jack Downing

Tividale: – 12. Jakob Burroughs, 13. Louis Connor.