News Story
Worcester 4 Yeltz 1
16 April 2001
It's been on the cards for months but I still can't believe it. We're down.
Match report - same as all recent games. Start terrible, go two-nil down in the first half, make some sort of fightback, pull one back (through new bloke Spencer) and then get caught out when pushing for an equaliser. Lloydy finished things off in style by heading an own goal. Hurrah.
Folkestone had earlier beaten Fisher, so we're now 13 points behind them with only four games left. The only possible chance now is to finish as high as possible and hope for someone having ground or financial problems. It's happened before but there's no indication of anything like this occuring, and to be honest we're going to finish bottom anyway.
At home to Cambridge on Saturday for what will be a cheery occasion.
Match Report from DJ
Worcester City: McDonnell; Carty (Lutz 78), Burrow, Joyce, Weir, Heeley, Hyde, Ellis, Owen, Shepherd, Cottrill. Subs: Tucker, Greenman
Halesowen Town: Quy; Crisp (Hines 15), Burnham, Lloyd, Wood, Smith, Skidmore, Crawford, Collins, Bailey (Spencer 45), Otto. Sub: Ince
Booked: Wood (63) Referee: A. Hendley (Rowley Regis) Attendance: 942
A blank Bank Holiday finally shut the bottom-four trapdoor on Halesowen's dreadful season and left the club to come to terms with their first recorded relegation since foundation in 1873.
Despite needing a fighting performance for survival, Halesowen produced a fairly inept first half showing and went in with an inevitable two-goal deficit as a result of glaring defensive lapses.
Andy Ellis was left free to reach the left-hand by-line in the 23rd minute and was able to hook the ball past a static Andy Quy after his initial cross was cleared back to him. With Worcester on top, Burrow headed weakly wide and Heeley headed across goal with Wesley Joyce approaching at the far post. Joyce then launched a free-kick from his own half in the 32nd minute which Quy did well to turn away for a corner. Two minutes before the interval, Joyce unleashed another 60 yard free-kick which escaped the Halesowen backline for Burrow to nip in and prod past Quy on the volley.
Halesowen started the second half in spirited style and Stuart Skidmore almost latched onto a flick-on from Ross Collins in the 52nd minute. The visitors pulled a goal back in the 73rd minute when Collins turned the defence and squared the ball for substitute Andy Spencer to confidently beat ex-Halesowen goalkeeper Danny McDonnell. With the hint of a dramatic fightback in the offing, Skidmore then cracked a 20-yard effort against McDonnell's crossbar as Halesowen's confidence grew stronger by the minute.
However, Worcester then unlocked Halesowen's defence again in the 83rd minute when Ellis played a neat one-two and Phil Wood could only help his cross over his own goal-line. In a moment of gallows humour, one wag described it as Woody's first goal of next season for Worcester... Three minutes from time Worcester goalkeeper McDonnell robbed Ricky Otto and on the break Jamie Hyde's cross was headed into his own net by Wayne Lloyd for a second own-goal from a demoralised Halesowen defence.