WHATEVER
BSC Yeltz 0 Birmingham City 3
15 January 2002
The mighty Yeltz were beaten 3-0 by a surprisingly experienced Blues side in a match used by Brendan to give a few players a run out who haven't been regulars recently. It's always nice to win, but as I always say these Senior Cups are completely inconsequential so it doesn't matter one bit at all. Full details in the match reports .
We're back in league action with a trip down to Gloucester on Saturday where we've had some "interesting" visits before.
Match Report from DJ
Halesowen Town: Clarke; Newall, Crawford, N. Smith, Burnham, Skidmore (Jones 62), Spencer, Gray, G. Smith, Ross, Hines. Subs: R. Collins, Colwell
Birmingham City: Vaesan; Gill (Diamond 73), Capaldi, Woodhouse, M. Johnson, Holdsworth, McCarthy, Randria, A. Johnson (Ward 62), Hughes (Sabathier 66), Fagan
Referee: G. Aston (Wall Heath) Attendance: 532
Halesowen bowed out of the Birmingham Senior Cup and were well beaten by a strong Blues line-up. Craig Fagan set Birmingham on the road to victory by glancing home a left wing cross from Bryan Hughes in the 9th minute. Home youngster Andy Spencer brought a 20th minute save out of Nico Vaesan, but it was Halesowen goalkeeper Tim Clarke who was kept on his toes for most of the evening. Clarke saved a looping header from Jerry Gill in the 22nd minute before tipping over a 20-yard effort from Bryan Hughes on the half-hour.
Lee Ross hit a speculative shot wide from a Clarke clearance after 40 minutes for the Yeltz, but the lively Andy Johnson kept the Halesowen defence busy with John Newall making an impressive home debut. Johnson rounded Clarke early in the second half but the home defence cleared. Clarke then smothered a 50th minute shot from McCarthy and saved from Andy Johnson after he played a clever pass with Hughes a minute later.
Fagan struck again for the visitors on the hour by blasting past Clarke after being set up by McCarthy. A third goal followed in the 66th minute when McCarthy found space in the penalty area to beat Clarke from 10-yards out.