Midland Football League
Premier Division
Saturday 22nd March 2025
Romulus 3-1 Tividale

We Must Take Our Chances

With centre midfielders  Jason Wood and Eddie Rann both unavailable, (Eddie due to the Heathrow Airport chaos). Callum Lloyd serving the second of his two match ban and centre halves Raheem Akhtar and Matt Holland although both started were both carrying injuries. This always looked a difficult ask.

Manager Phil Rann had the headache of replacing the Tividale engine room and did so by moving Alfie Higgs from his #10 role and Jordon Sangha from the right side of midfield into the middle of the park. Ranny then put Ethan Delaney down the right and Nathan Guest came in on the left side. Lewis Derrick started in the #10 role.

The game started poorly from both sides but Tividale were punished on 15 minutes when the old bad habit of giving away silly free kicks around their penalty area reared its ugly head again and an unmarked Ben Graham headed Romulus ahead. Tividale nearly struck back immediately when an Ezekiel Agyemang effort went wide of the Romulus post.

Romulus where two goals up in the 22nd minute when forward Sean Devlin broke down the Tividale left, laid the ball back to Tristan Bennett and his shot beat keeper Ethan Hawke. And although the keeper did get a hand to it he could not keep the shot out.

On 28 minutes Tividale had a great chance of cutting the deficit when a ball into the Romulus box had Higgs not sure of heading it goal bound or chesting it down to get a strike off and in the end he did neither. Tividale had another great chance in the 32nd minute when Holland met a Derrick corner with a goal bound header but Rom’s keeper Lewis Gwilliams made a brilliant stop and the Rom’s defence scrambled the ball clear.

Tividale continued to press and Delaney saw his shot turned around the post by Gwilliams and then the keeper took a Higgs shot comfortably. With a minute of the half left Sangha shot wide before Rom’s had the last chance of the half  when Bennett was able to get a shot off that Hawke dealt with

Half Time:- Romulus 2-0 Tividale

The second half was much the same with Tividale doing most of the running but Rom’s standing firm and not being easy to break down. Actually, it was the home side with the first effort of the half. A neat ball from Rio Sawyers into Devlin and it took the alert Holland to block his shot.

Tividale were back in the game on 54 minutes when Delaney won the ball in the middle of the park and laid the ball off to Sangha whose shot was blocked but the ball fell nicely for Guest who beat Gwilliams with a crisp shot. They had a chance to level it four minutes later when Guest rolled in Derrick but his shot lacked the power to trouble Gwilliams.

As Tividale poured on the pressure they were hit by a sucker punch in the 61st minute. A long ball over the top found substitute Alfie Taylor who looked offside. With no flag, Taylor carried the ball forward and chipped the onrushing Hawkes.

The goal and a host of substitutions (including three of the back four) due to injuries meant that Tividale could not build the momentum to make a sustained assault on the Rom’s defence and there best chances in the remainder of the game was a Joe Carrington header that went wide and a Delaney shot that Gwilliams turned around the post in injury time.

Full Time:- Romulus 3-1 Tividale

Tividale:- 1.Ethan Hawkes, 2. Tom Rann, 3. Sam Bratt-Wyton (14. Nashawn Blake 77), 4. Jordon Sangha, 5. Raheem Akhtar (12. Myles Durham 73), 6 Matt Holland (16. Joseph Garrington 66), 7. Ethan Delaney, 8. Alfie Higgs, 9. Ezekiel Agyemang, 10. Lewis Derrick (15. Callum McKenna 62), 11. Nathan Guest

Unused Subs:– 13. Oliver Sangha, 

Midland Football League
Premier Division
Saturday 15th March 2025
Tividale 1-1 Uttoxeter Town

Stalemate

After all the thrills and spills of the last four games since the Brocton defeat in which we have won three and lost one. It may have been inevitable based on our season so far, that a poor performance was due and this was it. But it was not the greatest of games anyway.

With Callum Lloyd suspended and Ryan Piggott, Gornal Athletic bound. Manager Phil Rann brought in Raheem Akhtar as a direct replacement for Callum at centre half and new signing Callum McKenna was added to the bench in the only changes to the match day squad.

Uttoxeter were much the better side in the opening exchanges as Tividale struggled to get into the game and their first chance came in the 8th minute when from a Jack Hassle free kick Marquis Trowers headed wide. Hassle threatened again on 12 minutes with a goal bound shot that was deflected wide and forward Lewis Dawson had his shot parried and cleared by Tividale keeper Ethan Hawkes on 22 minutes.

Tividale’s first effort on goal came half way through the half, when Alfie Higgs was put through but Uttoxeter keeper Xander Parke did well to come out and block his shot.

The rest of the half can only be summed up as bland as neither team could get control of the game. There was also constant interruptions due to petty free kicks and injuries and the two physios much have spent as much time on the pitch as the players.

The next event of any note came in the 43rd minute when Uttoxeter’s Mo Sidu found Dawson but his shot was blocked by Hawkes.

On the stroke of half time the visitors took a deserved lead when from another pointless free given away by the home side and taken by veteran centre back Eric Graves was headed back from the back post and Dawson turned the ball home.

To compound a poor Tividale half forward Ezekiel Agyemang was sin binned for dissent 3 minutes into added time.

Half Time:- Tividale 0-1 Uttoxeter Town

The second half fare to be honest was not much better and it was 10 minutes in, when Jason Wood fired well over the Uttoxeter crossbar. The visitors should have extended their lead on 58 minutes when a Rob Thorley long throw was not dealt with and the ball landed at the feet of Sidu 8 yards out but he managed to shoot over Hawkes bar.

There was 72 minutes on the clock when Tividale actually spurred into action and it was Higgs again with the shot. This time it was turned away for a corner by Parke. From the resulting corner taken by Jordon Sangha, the ball found its way to Higgs at the back post and he fired the ball into the back of the net at Parke’s near post.

It was a goal that the game needed as you would think that both teams would now go for it. But it never really happened and the game just meandered along.

In the 84th minute Wood did try his luck but again he failed to hit the target, this time firing wide, and a minute later Uttoxeter had their best chance of the half when after a great run by Sidu he found Dawson but the Tividale defence scrambled the ball out for a corner. From the resulting Hassle corner Uttoxeter’s Reuben Kenny headed wide

In the end apart from the first 20 minutes where the visitors dominated it was a scrappy game with two scrappy goals and a point a piece was about the right result. The positive was that a month ago Tividale would have lost this game and would have been well beaten, but it is a different Tividale now.

Full Time:- Tividale 1-1 Uttoxeter Town

Tividale:- 1.Ethan Hawkes, 2. Tom Rann, 3. Sam Bratt-Wyton, 4. Jason Wood, 5. Raheem Akhtar, 6 Matt Holland, 7. Jordon Sangha, 8. Eddie Rann (12. Lewis Derrick 73), 9. Ezekiel Agyemang, 10. Alfie Higgs, 11. Ethan Delaney (16. Nathan Guest

Unused Subs:– 14. Aon Mohammed Abbas, 15. Myles Durham, 17. Callum McKenna