THAT SINKING FEELING
Fisher 0 Yeltz 0
28 April 2001
STOP PRESS: Brendan Phillips appointed manager for a further two years - further details on YeltzTalk
Wet, miserable, overcast. A good way to make sure our traditional last away game celebrations were carried out in a manner befitting this awful season.
The match itself? If it had been on Sky Sports, those match area statistics would have shown most of the play in their half but we never really threatened their keeper in what were admittedly difficult conditions. We had a good singsong in the second half but all in all it was pretty depressing. Oh well.
We're still bottom but can still climb a few places if we win against Bath next week and other results go our way. There is a rumour about league reorganisation to make the league bigger next season, but I'd have thought that meant more teams coming down from the Conference than affecting our end of the table.
A very interesting idea from the club:
The Jolly Boys are trying to sort something out between us of getting at least one entry, but I think this is a brilliant idea - let's try and get as many businesses or fans or whoever to do this and get as much money raised as possible.
Match Report from DJ
Fisher Athletic: Iga; Aris, Manning, Bircham, Edwards, Taylor, Powell, Tydeman, Tyne, Mighty (Moore 67), O'Neil. Subs: Cohen, Pacey
Halesowen Town: Turbutt; Skidmore, Burnham, Lloyd (Wood 14), Owen (Sutton 23), Smith, Crawford, Ince, Spencer, Bailey, Hines. Sub: Thomas
Booked: None Referee: M. Knight (Hove) Attendance: 129
Halesowen's season-long lack of fire power came back to haunt them as they failed to turn long spells of pressure into goals at rain-soaked Fisher. However, for all Halesowen's lack of punch, Fisher fared even worse and gave emergency goalkeeper Scott Turbutt an easy afternoon's work in the Halesowen goal.
A dismal first half left the sparse crowd in no doubt why both sides are already condemned to relegation. Central defenders Wayne Lloyd and Jason Owen were early injury casualties but the only attempts on goal came when Fisher's Ross Edwards almost turned a backpass into his own net and Yeltz youngster Andy Spencer hit a cross from Les Hines over the bar on the half-hour.
Halesowen were well on top after the break but could not convert their chances to leapfrog above Fisher in the table. Hines curled a 20 yard free-kick just high in the 58th minute before Spencer had another trio of efforts in increasingly treacherous conditions. His 59th minute diving header went just past the post and he then broke clear to hit a hard cross along the face of goal after an hour before drilling wide again in the 70th minute. Andy Iga turned a shot from Michael Crawford wide and Crawford then saw his 78th minute goalbound header stick in the mud.
For all their efforts Halesowen remain bottom of the table and must be crying out for a younger version of one of their legendary goal-scoring heroes from the past.