Bilston Town 1-2 Droitwich Spa Droitwich got a crucial win against Bilston Town on Saturday to strength their position in the play offs places. The Saltmen are two points better off than OJM Black Country in 6th and have eight matches remaining this season in the league. They have been consistent on the road with eight wins and four draws from seventeen matches. Bilston took the lead in the early stages of the first half thanks to a strike by prolific forward Sam Yankson who has been excellent since joining the Steelmen from promotion winning Dudley Town. The visitors responded and found an equaliser in the 18th minute through an effort by James Lemon to make it 1-1 going into half time. Droitwich found a winner in the second half to settle a tight match with Alex Dugmore scoring for the Saltmen in the 70th minute to take home the three points. It’s a big win for the visitors and a good way to respond to the mid-week loss at play off rivals Wednesfield. Coventry Cospewood 6-1 AFC Bridgnorth Coventry Copsewood got a convincing home win against relegation strugglers AFC Bridgnorth at Allard Way on Saturday. It’s their seventh home win of the season and leaves them in 12th with five matches to go in the league. The main highlight was prolific forward Sean Kavanagh scoring a first half hat trick for the hosts and continuing his impressive season in front of goal. AFC Bridgnorth responded and managed to get a goal back at the start of the second half to make it 3-1. Coventry Copsewood built on their 3-1 lead throughout the second half thanks to a penalty from Daniel Lole and a brace from Bryan Kohyrelon to make it 6-1 at full time. It’s an impressive win for Coventry Copsewood and shows the progress they have made at step six. There comfortably in mid table and have a lot of quality up front to give any team a game on their day. It was a tough day at the office for AFC Bridgnorth on Saturday and it will be interesting to see how they respond against play off chasing Allscott Heath this afternoon. The main positive is the visitors being only a point off Paget Rangers in 18th and they have a similar goal difference to the Bears. The season is not over yet for AFC Bridgnorth, and they have five matches left to save their season. Cradley Town 2-2 Wolverhampton Sporting Community Wolves Sporting managed to hold play off chasers Cradley Town to a 2-2 draw at Beeches View Avenue on Saturday. The result leaves Cradley Town seven points off the play offs with six matches to go and creates a bit of breathing space for Wolves Sporting over the bottom three who are seven points better off than Paget Rangers in 18th. A good crowd of 76 supporters turned up to watch the entertaining 2-2 draw at the weekend. The visitors took the lead in the first half before efforts from Harry Edwards and substitute Oliver Jones made it 2-1 to the Hammers. Wolves Sporting responded and found an equaliser to take home a valuable point. The goals for the visitors coming from Jack Arnold and Cameron East. Out of the two teams the result suits the visitors more and helps their battle to stay in the division. A few wins at Pride Park should be enough for Wolves Sporting over the next few weeks to secure their step six status. Cradley will view it as a missed opportunity to make a push for the play offs and will probably have to rely on a few results going in their favour over the next few weeks. Hinckley AFC 4-2 Nuneaton Griff Hinckley continued their excellent form with a comeback home win against Nuneaton Griff at the weekend. The result makes it five matches unbeaten for the Leicester side and creates a 14-point gap at the top of the league. They have been strong at home throughout the season with only three losses from eighteen matches. An excellent crowd of 352 supporters turned up on Saturday to watch Hinckley AFC’s 12th home win of the season. Nuneaton Griff took a surprise 2-0 lead in the early stages of the first half thanks to efforts from Jacob Dumbleton and Reece Williams. Hinckley gradually grew into the match and made it 2-2 going into half time thanks to strikes by Kyron Green and Jack Edwards. The hosts pressed on in the second half and got two goals thanks to efforts by Jack Edwards and Matt Dawson to get a valuable three points. Credit to Nuneaton Griff who competed well against one of the standout teams in step six. Hinckley produced the quality when it mattered and have been reliably consistent to be top of division one throughout the season. Sutton United 5-5 Chelmsley Town Sutton United and Chelmsley Town were involved in an Easter thriller at Coleshill Road on Saturday which ended 5-5 at full time. This looked like being a mid-table battle between two well balanced teams going into the weekend with not much separating them. The amount of goals came as a surprise though and made for an entertaining game for the supporters. One of the highlights was Oliver Jeeves standing out for the visitors and scoring four goals for Chelmsley Town in an action-packed match. Adam Woods also scored for the visitors in the second half to get a valuable point against Sutton United. The result should give Chelmsley a lot of confidence in front of goal going into their match against Paget Rangers this afternoon. There was a well observed one minute’s silence before the match in memory of Boldmere St Michaels director of football Nick Heath who tragically passed away on Good Friday morning. Sutton United have adapted well to step six football and it’s been a season of progress since coming up from division two at the end of last season. Wednesfield 3-0 Heather St John’s Wednesfield got a huge win against play off rival Heather St John’s at the Cottage Ground on Saturday to keep their play off push on track. The result leaves them two points better off than OJM Black Country in 6th who have two games in hand over them. It’s been a good week for Wednesfield with consecutive home wins against play off chasing teams Droitwich and Heather St John’s. A decent crowd of 36 supporters watched Wednesfield get their 11th home win of the season. The main highlight was Freddie Cockerell scoring a hat trick for the hosts to get a convincing win. He’s been brilliant for Wednesfield since joining from Paget Rangers in the middle of the season and has 25 goals in all competitions this campaign. It’s going to be a close battle for the play off positions between Droitwich Spa, Wednesfield and OJM Black Country over the next few weeks and could go to the final day on the 20th April. Round up feature written by Rhys Beardmore for the Midland Football League OJM were looking to continue their excellent run of form with a result against Paget Rangers at the Trevor Brown Memorial Ground yesterday evening. The hosts were going for their fourth consecutive win and were one of the form teams going into it with 12 points from their last five matches. With the match kicking off at 6pm, it was huge for OJM as they could go to within two points of the play offs with a win. Paget Rangers were looking to cause an upset yesterday against an in-form OJM to boost their safety hopes and steer further clear of AFC Bridgnorth and Smethwick Rangers in the bottom two. The Bears were sitting in 18th going into yesterday’s match and a point better off than AFC Bridgnorth who lost to Coventry Copsewood earlier in the day. The main aim for the visitors is to finish in 18th to have a chance of a reprieve at the end of the season. It’s a close contest between the bottom three for that 18th spot and it could potentially go to the final day of the season. The atmosphere around Boldmere St Michaels was reflective and welcoming yesterday and it’s an excellent set up for step six football. The main positive is the view it offers of the pitch, and supporters are close to the action from the Harry Peakman stand. It’s well worth a visit for casual groundhoppers across the West Midlands and is just a 14-minute walk from Wylde Green train station. Starting Line Ups The starting line up for OJM featured Tom Clapp starting in goal and Zaqib Hussain leading the line up front. The formation appeared to be a 4-3-3 with Zaqib Hussain being supported by Kosheen Sappelton and Kofi Williams on the wings. There were four changes from the team that started against Paget Rangers a couple of weeks ago with Blake Kindred coming into the team and playing in holding midfield. Paget Rangers’ starting line-up included Reece Johnston starting in goal and Dion Calder leading the line up front. The formation looked like a 4-2-3-1 with Dion Calder being supported by Amari Clarke and Dejon Miles on the wings. There were nine changes from the team that started against Nuneaton Griff last weekend with Dominic Ellington coming back into the team and playing in central defence alongside Jordan Ambris. First Half OJM got off to a brilliant start and took the lead early on to settle into the match. A well worked passing move down the left was played into the box and Kosheen Sappelton was on hand to put the ball into the net. It was a bit of quality in the final third from OJM and showed their quality on the ball in the opening stages of the match. The main pattern of play in the first half was OJM playing a possession-based style and looking to work the ball into the box. Paget were set up to invite OJM on to them so they could get them on the counterattack and cause problems at the back. To the visitor’s credit there was not many chances in the opening half an hour, and they did well to contain the attacking threat of OJM. It was not quite clicking up front for Paget and they struggled to build any momentum in front of goal throughout the first half. OJM had a lot of the ball and were looking to break down the Paget backline for large parts of it. This probably prevented the visitors from building some rhythm in the final third. Paget were dealing with the OJM pressure well in the first half with Dominic Ellington playing well and making some big clearances to keep the visitors in the match. Harry Parker also did a good job off the ball and was reading the game well alongside breaking up the play from holding midfield. The OJM pressure eventually paid off for the hosts and resulted in a second goal near the end of the first half. An excellent ball into the box found Zaqib Hussain at the back post who finished well into the bottom right corner to make it 2-0. It was a quality finish from a player who was prolific in division one last season with 32 goals. The hosts managed to find a third goal at the end of the first half to effectively settle the match before half time. It was similar to the first goal and came down the left-hand side where Louis Conway worked the ball to the byline before squaring to Kofi Williams who finished well to make it 3-0. Second Half The second half continued the pattern of the first half with OJM having most of the ball and looking to break down the Bears defence. The hosts had a greater degree of control over the match in the second half which was the main difference from the first half. A well weighted pass from Blake Kindred found substitute Taylor Homer whose shot was well saved by Reece Johnston in the Paget goal. Fellow OJM substitute Eshan Greer made a brilliant run off the shoulder to go through one on one with the goalkeeper before finishing well to make it 4-0 in the middle of the second half. The visitors had a few half chances in the second half to reduce the deficit with the best chance falling to Ryan Butler who had a header saved from a free kick into the box. As the match became more stretched, OJM took advantage of this and managed to find the space to cause the visitors problems at the back. Taylor Homer was excellent down the right in the second half and accelerated with the ball before rounding the keeper and producing a composed finish to make it 5-0. He’s got that turn of pace and offers OJM something different going forward. Despite a lot of quality coming from OJM yesterday, Paget showed flashes of quality when they had the ball with substitute Alex Mane impressing off the bench and linking up the play well to try and build attacks for the visitors. OJM managed to get a sixth goal near the end of the match with substitute Kyle Moseley accelerating into the box and beating his man before finishing into the right corner. Not long after the referee blew for the full-time whistle with it finishing 6-0 to OJM. Full Time It was a team performance from OJM yesterday which was the most pleasing thing about the play off chasers with every player stepping up and having a good game. The result should give them a lot of confidence for the matches ahead and set up an exciting end to the season for the supporters. Alongside the attacking quality in the final third, the defence and the midfield really stood out in this match and showed why OJM are competing near the top of the table. Callum Nimmo and Stefan Cameron were excellent at the back and managed to deal with the Paget pressure well, especially in the first half. Blake Kindred had an underrated game from holding midfield and offered OJM that composure on the ball to help them build attacks. He played some excellent defence splitting passes to set up attacks in the second half. Liam Spink was also reliably good in midfield and linked up the play effectively between the defence and the midfield. Paget showed plenty of effort and endeavour yesterday against a good side. There were some positives in terms of players standing out and having good matches. None the less, this is probably one to forget for the Bears with the matches coming up being key for their safety hopes. FT score: OJM Black Country 6-0 Paget Rangers Man of the match: Blake Kindred (OJM Black Country) Match report written by Rhys Beardmore for the Midland Football League |
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March 2024
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