CAN WE STILL DO IT?

Yeltz 4 Tiverton 2

28 March 2006

We're officially on a good run now, but is it too late? We're up to 6th place , but with 5th being the last play off place and us being 9 points behind Bedford with only 6 games left it's still unlikely. BUT, we have still got to play them and stranger things have happened - 6 wins out of 6 and we could still sneak in. Honest.

We kept our unbeaten run going with a good 4-2 win at The Grove against Tiverton, with all the goals coming in the first half. Junior Francis looks like a good signing, and from all accounts we're playing some decent football again. Come On!

On Saturday we travel to Aylesbury in a game we can definitely win. They've lost their last four games and are looking likely to get relegated, but we couldn't beat them at home a few weeks ago, so who knows really. What a fantastic analysis that was.

Match Report from DJ

Halesowen Town: Coleman; Pierpoint, Thompson, Preston, Knight, Cooper (Myers 85), Cowley, Francis, Forinton, Amos (Skidmore 63), Forsdick (N. Smith 66). Unused Subs: C. Smith, Johnson.

Tiverton Town: Ovendale; McConnell, Davies (Kelly 77), Gould (Hambly 5), Croft, Milsom, Ampadu, Bale, Pears (Beddow 75), Holloway, Mudge. Unused Subs: Nogan, Skinner.

Referee: S. Knapp (Bristol) Attendance: 288 Booked: None Sponsors' HTFC Man of the Match: James Francis

Halesowen moved into sixth place in the table by extending their unbeaten league sequence to six games in a six-goal thriller.

All the goals arrived in an exciting first half as Halesowen romped into a 4-2 lead to condemn their Devon visitors to their tenth remain game without a league win.

Tiverton suffered an early blow by losing central defender Tom Gould through injury in the 5th minute. James FRANCIS then put Halesowen ahead after just 7 minutes with a deft flick into the corner of the net with his back to goal to record his first goal for the club in his loan spell.

After 8 minutes Dean Coleman collected a corner from visiting captain Kwame Ampadu but Howard Forinton then forced a 13th minute corner at the other end following a poor clearance from goalkeeper Mark Ovendale.

Home captain Nikki PRESTON made it 2-0 by heading home Alex Cowley's 14th minute corner from close range. But Tivvy pulled a goal back in the 19th minute when Jamie Mudge's effort stuck in the mud and the ball broke to the left for substitute David HAMBLY to fire past Coleman from ten yards. Chris Bale's shot was then collected by Coleman a minute later and on 21 minutes Nick Amos cleared for a corner from under his own crossbar.

FRANCIS hit his second goal of the evening with a fine finish on the turn after being put through on the right of goal by Simon Forsdick in the 24th minute. Plucky Tiverton reduced the arrears again in the 34th minute to make it 3-2 when Darren DAVIES hit a brilliant direct curling shot around the left of the defensive wall from a harshly awarded free-kick on the edge of the area.

But FORINTON restored the two goal advantage seconds before the interval by flicking up the ball with his back to goal from a right-wing throw-in before turning to volley home with an excellent strike.

The second-half was more subdued as Halesowen kept out any attempt by the visitors to get back into the game and a dangerous 49th minute shot from Richard Pears was cleared off the line by Stuart Pierpoint. Forsdick played a great 50-yard cross-field pass for Cowley to drive just wide of the post in the 57th minute and following a string of substitutions Barry McConnell chested a Yeltz corner off the line.

Substitute Tom Beddow screwed past the post after 77 minutes and McConnell shot straight at Coleman after 83 minutes as the visitors faced the long trek back to Devon empty handed.