LEADER OF THE PACK
Hednesford 1 Yeltz 2
16 August 2004
It's obviously very early days, but we've made a fantastic start to the season!
A second victory tonight against old rivals Hednesford has taken us to the top of the table . Goals from Jimmy Haarhoff and Dave Haywood gave us our best start since our promotion season of 1989-90 (according to Chas)
On Saturday we visit Histon with high hopes of continuing our good run of form. They lost at Cirencester on Saturday, although it's still early days to try to make too many predictions on how good teams are. However, let's hope for another good performance and some more points.
Match Report from DJ
Hednesford Town: Young; Gibson (Antrobus 77), Beckett, Barrow, Teesdale, Williams (McGhee 20), Gray, Palmer (Brindley 83), Charie, McSweeney, Berks. Unused Subs: Adams, Evans
Halesowen Town: Sheils; Cooper, Haywood, Preston, Jones, Charlton, Cowley, Moore, Haarhoff (Grocutt 81), Baker (Forsdick 84), Steane (Skidmore 60). Unused Subs: Burgess, Strachan
Referee: D. J. Hines (Worcester) Booked: Baker (65), Gray (65), Preston (66), McGhee (66), Jones (67) Attendance: 644
The Mighty Yeltz moved to the top of the Southern Premier League table with a second win in three days giving them their best start to a new season for 15 years. Dave Haywood capped a fine individual performance to hit a 75th minute winner against the FA Trophy holders Hednesford with Halesowen once again displaying their newly-found tremendous team spirit.
Jimmy HAARHOFF gave Halesowen an 18th minute lead when his low shot beat Ryan Young from an Alex Cowley chip into the box.
The Pitmen forced two corners midway in the first-half and Chris Gray then headed a David Berks header over the bar. On 37 minutes Haywood won a left-wing corner for Halesowen and a minute later Jason Moore's shot was deflected away for another corner kick. The hosts went close two minutes before the interval when Leon McSweeney broke clear but Mark Sheils turned his shot around the post.
With Halesowen increasingly on the back-foot at the start of the second-half, McSweeney drove wide of the post on 53 minutes. Hednesford equalised in the 59th minute when Damien Charie beat the offside trap and although he was forced wide down the left, his cross was spilled by Sheils to give McSWEENEY the simple task of tapping home on the goal-line. A string of bookings then followed just after the hour as the game became increasingly competitive in nature.
But the visitors failed to buckle under pressure and fought back to regain the lead in the 75th minute when HAYWOOD hit a free-kick directly into the net from the right-wing, although the ball appeared to make contact with home defender Lee Barrow on its journey into the net. Halesowen held onto the lead relatively easily and on 80 minutes Haarhoff fought hard to win a left-wing corner.