A GRINDING VICTORY
Cirencester 0 Yeltz 1
10 November 2001
It wasn't pretty, but the mighty Yeltz got an important 3 points by beating an poor Cirencester team 1-0.
It was a dismal ground, mud puddles in both goalmouths and at least 75% of the crowd of 180-odd were from Halesowen. We tried to play football, but it wasn't really that sort of day and it became a niggling battle. The longer the game went on, the less likely a goal looked until we finally managed to get one through a Rosco close range volley.
As the cliche goes, these are exactly the sort of games you need to win if you want to win the league, so although the performance wasn't fantastic, let's be really happy with the three points. We've moved back up to 3rd place in the table with games in hand on all the other leaders so things are going well.
There's been plenty of talk about the possible signing of ex-Yeltz man Steve Piearce on YeltzTalk and also talk about setting up a supporters' fund to finance signings. All I'm going to add is that, as usual, Kev Crook's (KEV WITHOUT TREV) comments make a great deal of sense and I agree with them completely.
Tuesday takes us to Bilston in the League Cup, and then we host Mangotsfield in the league on Saturday.
Match Report from DJ
Cirencester Town: Sawyer; Minturn, Richardson, Grange, Wollen, Mayo, Toby Clarke (Belcher 70), Horgan, Miller, Godley (J. Carter 62), Terry. Sub: Bass
Halesowen Town: Tim Clarke; Colwell, Burnham, Smith, L. Collins, Skidmore, Hall (A. Carter 77), Jones, Giddings, Taylor, R. Collins. Subs: Spencer, Crawford
Referee: S. Cook (Lyndhurst) Attendance: 182 Booked: Sawyer (36), Terry (45), Hall (45)
Halesowen came up with another late winner to claim three points against a Cirencester outfit who had been performing better in recent Cup competitions than their lowly league position suggests.
The Yeltz soaked up early pressure while they got the measure of a very heavy pitch with muddy goalmouths. Tim Clarke saved a 20-yard deflected shot from Andy Minturn after 8 minutes and then scooped the ball off the toe of David Godley. Godley was denied again in the 24th minute - with the help of Neil Smith - as Cirencester employed the direct approach.
Halesowen started to overcome the home side's physical style near half-time and won three free-kicks on the edge of the penalty area with goalkeeper Kevin Sawyer receiving a booking for handling outside his box. The game then threatened to bubble over with a couple of 20-man brawls in midfield.
Sawyer made a great save from Ross Collins after 50 minutes and Kerry Giddings had an overhead kick cleared from under the bar. Neil Smith volleyed the resulting corner just high as Halesowen dominated the second half.
Ross Collins made his mark on the game by hitting wide from a good position in the 74th minute and then forcing a fine save at the foot of the post from Sawyer. He went one better in the 78th minute by tapping home his second goal of the season from an inch perfect cross by find-of-the-season Richard Colwell who battled well down the right wing.