Tividale FC

Report

Midland Football League Premier Cup
Quarter Final
Tuesday 21st February 2023
Stone Old Alleynians 3-0 Tividale

Either bad luck or no luck

At the moment Tividale are somehow finding way’s not to win games. After last week’s great performance against  Aston Villa’s Under-21s in the Birmingham Senior Cup. They failed to repeat the performance and crashed out of the league cup away at Stone Old Alleynians.

Again, changes were made for this game. David Solademi, Joe Burroughs, and Ryan Snape  were out due to unavailability and injury. In came Kamol Campbell, Joe Hawkins and Harry Lewis while Peter Hawk replaced Louis Connor in goal.

The visitors didn’t start too badly and Dan Smith failed to hit the target and fired over after just 5 minutes this after some great work by Jason Wood. But that was as good as it got as Stone began to take charge and Hawk had to be alert to a Jack Tomlinson shot on 11 minutes.

Stone should have opened the scoring in the 14th minute when Hawk misjudged a ball into his area but Oliver Boote shot wide. Two minutes later and Boote was put through again, this time his shot came off the base of the post and out. Unbelievably a minute later he was given a third chance to run onto another long ball and this time the forward’s shot gave Hawk no chance as it crashed off the underside of the crossbar and in.

Tividale just could not get hold of the ball and when they did, they were losing possession far too easily and in the 22nd minute after again giving the ball away Hawk had to turn away a Tomlinson shot. A free kick on 26 minutes saw Hawk again deny Tomlinson.

An Arman Khoshkhoo cross in the 28th minute found Lewis but his header was safely taken by Finley Knight in the Stone goal. As the game went into the last 5 minutes of the half Khoshkhoo saw his shot cleared off the line.

On the stroke of half time came the decision that about summed up Tividale’s recent luck. From a Malcolm Melvin free kick, Knight spills the ball and Wood is the first to the ball and Smith is also trying to turn the loose ball home. There is then a melee with Stone players claiming Knight had got the ball when Smith went in. While Tividale players are saying the ball was there to be won. But after consulting his assistant the referee decides to issue Smith with a straight red card for serious foul play.

Half Time :-Stone Old Alleynians 1-0 Tividale

Not only now down to 10 men but Tividale had to make a change at the start of the second period when Hawk was unable to continue due to illness and Connor had to step in between the sticks. And he was soon into the action as a shot from Boote in the 48th minute, reared up after bouncing in front of the keeper but he had his body behind it and caught the ball at the second attempt.

A couple of minutes later he had no chance when again Boote was able to get the run on the Tividale defence and one on one with Connor he made no mistake smashing the ball past him and into the back of the net. In the 55th minute it was game over. An error by Connor left Boote to walk the ball into an empty net to make it 3-0.

Tividale did create chances in the latter stages of the game but apart from a Jack Fletcher shot with 8 minutes to go that Knight saved. The keeper was never troubled.

While at the other end Stone were a constant threat, especially their front two of Boote and Tomlinson. But in the end it finished 3-0 to the home side and it is Stone who go into the next round, while Tividale will look to turn their fortunes around with some big league games coming up.

Full Time :-Stone Old Alleynians 3-0 Tividale

Tividale: – 1. Peter Hawk (13. Louis Connor 46), 2. Jack Fletcher, 3. Kamol Campbell, 4. Jakob Burroughs, 5. Zac Kourouyianni, 6. Joe Hawkins, 7. Harry Lewis (14. Alfie Higgs 72), 8. Jason Wood, 9. Dan Smith, 10. Malcolm Melvin, 11. Arman Khoshkhoo (12. Nashawn Blake 65)

Unused Subs:– None