ON THE UP AGAIN
Yeltz 2 Cirencester 1
27 January 2004
This crazy season took another turn for the better last night as the mighty Yeltz beat promotion rivals Cirencester 2-1 after trailing for most of the game. Late goals from Hollis and Charlton has taken us back up to 4th in the table , and with Rugby, Bromsgrove and Team Bath all drawing it was an excellent night. Full details in Dave's match report .
On Saturday we travel to struggling Shepshed in another important game. They took a point off us at The Grove earlier in the season, and they way we're playing who knows what will happen. However, let's hope we can put a consistent run of form together from now until the end of the season.
Match Report from DJ
Halesowen Town: Sheils; Colwell, Charlton, Grocutt, Jones, Spencer, Foy (Skidmore 87), Ashby, Ball, Steane, Hollis. Unused Subs: Smith, Baker, Forsdick, Vaughan.
Cirencester Town: Thompson; Bird, McEntergart, Richards, Jackson (Bevan 84), Wootton, Robison, McCabe, Hopkins, Griffin, Fitch. Unused Subs: Davis, Wimble
Referee: M. Edwards (Swadlincote) Attendance: 231 Booked: Ball (37), Grocutt (70), Wootton (77)
Halesowen ended Cirencester's mammoth 15 game unbeaten sequence with a result that looked unlikely with just 15 minutes remaining.
The Yeltz started where they left off on Saturday and failed to produce a clear strike on goal in another poor first-half performance. By contrast, the well-organised visitors won a series of early corners and Andy McCabe delivered a 9th minute corner kick for Scott Griffin to head onto the top of the bar with McCabe crossing the ball back again to scrape the far post seconds later.
Cirencester went on to take a simple 18th minute lead with the unmarked Gareth HOPKINS rising to head home a left wing cross from six yards. Home goalkeeper Mark Sheils then did well to save when Hopkins turned to shoot on the half-hour.
Halesowen made a much brighter start to the second half with the solid Cirencester defence clearing under pressure from Asa Charlton in the 47th minute from a Simon Hollis cross. On 65 minutes Halesowen created their best chance of the game so far when Ben Steane flicked a header on for Jason Ashby to cross and the ball fell to Charlton but he blasted high from 12 yards out.
Cirencester's strategy of sitting back with their solid defence shutting-up shop for the evening seemed to be paying off until Halesowen finally found a 74th minute equaliser when Richard Ball's shot rebounded off the legs of goalkeeper Paul Thompson and HOLLIS followed up to drive home from 12 yards.
Cirencester immediately came out of their shell and broke down the other end with Hopkins getting the better of Dan Jones to become free down the right but the home defence somehow escaped a game of pinball in their own area. Halesowen's Ashby was then fouled on the edge of the Cirencester penalty area by Gary Wootton who received a yellow card and CHARLTON drove the 78th minute free-kick through a crowd of players into the bottom corner of the net to give the Yeltz the lead.
Ashby had a decent call for a penalty turned down but Cirencester poured forward to try to save the game in the dying moments. Hopkins took the ball down just six yards out in the 86th minute but Sheils stood up to make a fine blocking save. Sheils then made a weak 88th minute clearance that fell directly for Ben Fitch to unleash a 35-yard shot but the ball struck the post with Sheils frantically back-tracking. In the final minute frustrated Cirencester struck the woodwork for the fourth time when a Hopkins header crashed off the underside of the bar and the ball was once again scrambled clear.