Midland Football League
Premier Division
Saturday 7th January 2023
Stourport Swifts 3-0 Tividale

No fun by the fair

Against a very good Stourport Swifts side Tividale were in the game until two goals either side of half time gave us a mountain to climb. Then going down to 10 men and a converted penalty with 25 minutes to go made it game over. So For the second time in a week. Tividale came back from the banks of the River Seven, empty handed.

With Peter Hawk taken ill, Louis Connor was handed the keepers gloves. Kamol Campbell came in at left back. Joe Burroughs replaced the injured David Solademi and with a switch from the Bewdley 4-4-2. Tividale reverted back to their familiar 4-3-3. Meaning Jason Wood back into the engine room at the expense of Matt Funge.

It was the home side who had the first real chance after just a couple of minutes when a Jack Watts shot was blocked by Tividale defender Matt Hunt and from the resulting corner a Jim Hanson header was claimed at the second attempt by Connor.

Tividale could have gone 1-0 up when a Kourouyianni header from a Townsend corner on 5 minutes came off the base of the post. With the game now end to end a Martin Slevin corner on 7 minutes was met by Matty Jackson and this time it was Campbell who cleared the danger for Tividale. Then Watts tested Connor with a long range effort on 14 minutes.

Kourouyianni then put in a neat pass into Jack Downing in the 15th minute but Stourport keeper Josh Bishop was equal to his shot. Straight at the other end Tilbury headed wide and Cain Smith had a shot turned around the post by Connor as Stourport started to exert the pressure on Tividale. From the corner Slevin fired over the Tividale bar.

On 38 minutes the home side did what good teams do, they score when they are on top. Although Tividale will be disappointed with how it came about especially after defending so well. Tividale failed to clear a Stourport corner and a Tilbury cross was turned in from close range by an unmarked Watts at the back post.

On the stroke of half time a ball into the Stourport penalty area caused all sorts of panic but the visitors were unable to put the ball into the back of the net and Stourport eventually cleared their lines.

Half Time:-Stourport Swifts 1-0 Tividale

2 minutes into the second period and another Cain Smith shot was put around the post by Connor. Then a Tividale mistake in the 52nd minute let in Watts and with his shot going wide. Tilbury turned it in again unmarked at the back post.

On 60 minutes Downing saw his shot blocked and deflected for a corner. From a Tividale corner on 65 minutes Stourport break and a ball into the Tividale box sees Cain Smith round Connor but is felled by Campbell in the area and the defender is shown a straight red for conceding the penalty. Watts stepped up and scored from the spot.

With 10 minutes to go substitute Lee Chilton tested Connor with a shot and fellow sub Jordon Annear could not keep his shot on target. With two minutes to go, Tividale’s Dan Smith saw his shot blocked by a Stourport defender and into time added on Chilton lifted his shot over the bar.

Full Time:- Stourport Swifts 3-0 Tividale

Tividale: – 1. Louis Connor, 2. Zac Kourouyianni, 3. Kamol Campbell, 4. Malcolm Melvin (16. Jamie Oliver 68), 5. Joe Burroughs, 6. Matt Hunt, 17. Taylor Townsend (14. Ryan Snape 72), 8. Curtis Cocking,  9. Dan Smith, 10. Jason Wood (12. Jack Fletcher 68) 11. Jack Downing (15. Matt Funge 72)

Subs: – 13. Roman Davies.

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.

Midland Football League
Premier Division
Tuesday 27th December 2022
Tividale 0-1 Walsall Wood

No stopping the Wood

After our own mid-season break, with it being three weeks without a competitive game and only a friendly against Stourbridge in that time. The visit of the league leaders two days after Christmas was just what we needed to get back into the swing of things.

With the squad now slimmed down to nineteen. Manager Dave King named all the players available to him with Jamie Howe, Louis Ezewele and Jason Wood missing for this clash.

Tividale started well and after 4 minutes a sweeping move involving Jakob Burroughs, Taylor Townsend and Jack Downing saw the latter’s shot come back off the crossbar then a couple of minutes later a Townsend free kick was pushed over the bar by Wood keeper Callum Smith.

On 9 minutes Wood had their first chance. A short corner from Carter Lycett to Jai Verma who laid the ball off to Joey Butlin who fired wide. Then Tividale keeper Peter Hawk got down comfortably from Hayden Purves. On 15 minutes a Townsend free kick deflected off the Wood wall but again it came off the cross bar.

Walsall got their goal on 22 minutes. When Tividale failed to clear their lines from a corner. The ball came out to Verma, and he saw Hawk off his line and clipped the ball over the keeper and into the back of the net. Walsall were now in the ascendancy and in the 26th minute the dangerous Verma was in the thick of it again. Finding Butlin with a neat pass. Butlin in turn found Purves but again Hawk was equal to his shot.

Hawk had to turn a snapshot from Butlin around the post on 32 minutes and a couple of minutes later Burroughs fired wide of Smith’s post. Smith failed to hold another Burroughs effort on 41 minutes, but he was able to gather at the second attempt.

Half Time:- Tividale 0-1 Walsall Wood

In a quiet start to the second period the first chance fell to Walsall’s Somel, but he shot wide. Townsend tried his luck with another free kick but this one came back off the wall. Walsall Goal scorer Verma and Tividale’s young right back Jack Fletcher were having a battle royal down Tividale’s right and on 55 minutes Verma cut in from the left, but his shot was blocked.

A Townsend free kick was headed back across the box by Hunt and Burroughs volley looked like it hit Tividale forward Dan Smith.

On 61 minutes Kaden May picked up a loose ball after Tividale failed to clear but Hawk saved his shot. Kevin Hemagou did well in bringing down a Verma cross but was unable to generate the power in his shot to trouble Hawk.

No Tividale player is able to latch onto another Townsend free kick as it flashes across the box and a succession of balls into the box are quite comfortably dealt with by Smith and in the end Tividale just cannot get the equaliser and Walsall Wood go away with the points.

Full Time:- Tividale 0-1 Walsall Wood

Tividale: – 1. Peter Hawk, 2. Jack Fletcher, 3. Kamol Campbell (14.Zac Kourouyianni 60), 4. Jakob Burroughs, 5. David Solademi 6. Matt Hunt, 17. Taylor Townsend, 8. Curtis Cocking, 9. Dan Smith, 10. Malcolm Melvin (14. Matt Funge 60) 11. Jack Downing (16. Ryan Snape 75)

Tividale: – 13. Louis Connor, 15. Joe Burroughs

Midland Football League

Premier Division
Saturday 26th November 2022
Tividale 4-0 Atherstone Town

Four Days in Football
 

There is one good thing about having two games a week, When you throw in a shocking midweek performance like Tuesday. It is only four days to ponder on it and put it right.

It was a no brainer that if we play as we did in midweek then Atherstone may well cause even more damage than Stone did. But manager Dave King made just the three changes from the midweek defeat but made a few positional changes.

Zac Kourouyianni came in at right back, moving Jack Fletcher to left back and Brad Welding not in the squad. Louis Ezewele replaced David Solademi and club captain Curtis Cocking came back into midfield this meant Ryan Snape moved to the wide right position replacing Jack Downing who moved to the bench.

The visitors definitely had the better of the early exchanges with Ryan Quinn testing keeper Peter Hawk with a whipped in cross and a deflected shot in the first 10 minutes and then Darren Eggleton just failed to reach Quinn’s free kick on 12 minutes.

Tividale slowly grew into the game and Dan Smith forced Adders keeper Carl O’Neill to turn his shot around the post. Malcolm Melvin then went wide with a Tividale free kick on 21 minutes.

The best chance of the game up to that point fell to Adders forward Joe Obi on 23 minutes when he headed over a great Chris Cowley cross with the goal at his mercy. Five minutes later and Cowley created his own double chance. First having his shot blocked and then he hit the rebound wide.

Against the run of play Tividale broke the deadlock. A great Melvin cross was met at the back post by an unmarked Snape and he gave O’Neill no chance.

The Adders came storming back and a couple of minutes later Callum Carsley headed a Quinn corner over the bar. On 41 minutes Tividale survived a goalmouth scramble that finished with adders’ skipper Jamie Hood heading a loose ball wide.

Half Time: – Tividale 1-0 Atherstone Town

Tividale’s Smith had the first great chance four minutes into the second period, when O’Neill failed to hang onto his stinging shot but the keeper to grab it at the second attempt. But the reprieve was short lived because a minute later Carsley brought down Taylor Townsend and it was Townsend himself who scored from the spot and doubled the lead although O’Neill did get a hand to it. Even though unlucky to be 2-0 down the Adders still pressed and Hawk was forced to pull off a fine save on 52 minutes.

At the other end Tividale were still not looking to  put on the hand brake and carried on with the attacking intent and O’Neill pulled off a brilliant save to deny Townsend after Jason Wood found him with a great ball.

On 64 minutes the game was over as a contest when after some great work from Melvin his cross was met by Smith who bundled the ball home. After being in the game for so long and now 3-0 down as we moved into the final 15 minutes, the visitors understandably looking for full time while Tividale were in no mood to finish the scoring and Matt Hunt headed over a Townsend corner on 77 minutes.

With 10 minutes to go Tividale scored their 4th. Substitute Downing’s run and cross was turned in by Townsend at the back post. Ezewele then headed a Townsend free kick wide with 5 minutes to go. But in the end 4-0 was the final score line.

Full Time: – Tividale 4-0 Atherstone Town

Tividale: – 1. Peter Hawk, 2. Zac Kourouyianni), 3. Jack Fletcher, 4. Malcolm Melvin, 5. Louis Ezewele, 6. Matt Hunt, 17. Taylor Townsend, 8. Curtis Cocking, (12. Cameron East 85), 9. Dan Smith (12. Lewis Taylor-Boyce 80), 10. Jason Wood (16. Cody Mullan 74) 11. Ryan Snape (15. Jack Downing 76)

Unused Sub: 13. Louis Connor