MORE PROMISE

Friendly Yeltz 3 Worcester 1

24 July 2004

Well we finally scored some goals - three in fact - and once again things look reasonably promising for the new seaosn ahead. Goals from Haarhoff, Pope and Jason lead to a good victory against a full strength Worcester team. Full details in Dave's match report .

On Wednesday Walsall are the visitors at The Grove, and then next Saturday we play Bromsgrove, also at home.

If you're interested, there's a new vote below asking for how you think we'll get on this season.

Match Report from DJ

Halesowen Town: Sheils; Skidmore, Haywood, Preston, Jones, Pope, Cowley, Haarhoff, Burgess, Baker, Steane. Used Subs: J. Moore, Charlton, Forsdick, Colwell, Williams (GK).

Worcester City: McDonnell; Warner, Davies, Heeley (Parker 71), Woolley, McDonald (Hobbs 78), Colley (J. Skyers 71), Stanley, Webster (Atkinson 58), C. Moore (Owen 49), Khan. Unused Subs: L. Skyers, Reynolds, Smith

Referee: L. Sinclair (Brierley Hill) Attendance: 213

The Yeltz notched their first pre-season victory in style with a comfortable win over a full strength Worcester City from the newly formed Conference North.

In a lively Halesowen opening, Alex Cowley made a trademark weaving run into the Worcester half in the 3rd minute and a minute later Rob Warner headed behind his own goal for a corner.

Jimmy HAARHOFF put the Yeltz ahead from the penalty spot with Halesowen's first pre-season goal in the 7th minute after the referee spotted a push on Lewis Baker, much to the surprise of the Worcester defence. Slack defending almost gifted Halesowen a second goal in the 14th minute when Richard Burgess was left unmarked but he volleyed over the bar from Ben Steane's corner.

Steve Pope made a saving tackle on Shabir Khan in the 20th minute before Adam Webster set up Jai STANLEY to level the scores on 27 minutes by driving past goalkeeper Mark Sheils from the edge of the area. Barry Woolley then headed a Webster cross just wide three minutes before the interval.

The Yeltz killed the game as a meaningful contest with two goals early in the second half. Steve Pope headed against the underside of the crossbar in the 53rd minute and Danny McDonnell scrambled away the rebound but POPE poked home the ball at the third attempt from close range. Hard-working Jimmy Haarhoff then hit over the bar in the 55th minute from Jason Moore's lay-off.

Jason MOORE added a third goal in the 61st minute by calmly chipping over McDonnell from 20 yards after latching onto a long ball out of defence and shrugging off a challenge from Carl Heeley. Worcester made little impression on the lead and it was home striker Burgess who blasted against the side-netting with nine minutes remaining.