TUDOR TALK

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Saturday 8th September
Southern League Premier Division
Bromsgrove Rovers 0 Hemel Town 3

The Tudors opened up a five point gap at the top of the table with a very comfortable win.
Despite missing due to injury both Steve Sinclair and Josh Sozzo from the line-up that won at Mangotsfield in midweek, Hemel never had to stretch themselves to beat a toothless Rovers side that was promoted through the play-offs last season.
The first quarter of an hour was fairly uneventful as both sides cancelled each other out in midfield, but Hemel always
looked the more likely to score kicking down the Victoria Ground slope, and did just that on sixteen minutes when Dean Cracknell floated a free-kick to the far side of the six yard box, and skipper Paul Edgeworth struck a sweet left foot volley that bounced off first home keeper Karl Lewis’s hands, and then the inside of the post before hitting the back of the net.
Shortly after the goal the home side had probably their best period of the first half, with Wayne Dyer’s shot blocked by Yiadom Yeboah at the near post, and then Jermaine Clarke blocking Yeboah’s attempted clearance, but shooting past the far post from his follow up.
But the combination of Yeboah and Nathan Bowden-Haase were to look solid all afternoon and in truth Rovers threatened very little all game.
Cracknell should have been awarded a penalty on twenty seven minutes when he was chopped down by Lucan Spittle in the area, and five minutes later a shot from Drew Roberts was blocked by Spittle again and Ollie Burgess pounced on the rebound, only to see his shot across Lewis unluckily smash off the far post.
But just as the clock hit the forty five minute mark, Hemel made the points safe.
Yeboah launched one of his long throws into the six yard box and Bowden-Haase rose unmarked near the penalty spot to head down and home across a rather static Lewis, for a rather soft goal.
There was still time left in the half for Rovers Dave Bridgewater to curl a free-kick over the Hemel wall - but his effort lacked any pace and Ian Brown gathered the shot easily.
After changing ends Hemel now sat back and were content to let Rovers have the lion’s share of possession whilst hitting uphill on the break. Despite this however the home side singularly failed to test Brown at all - save one moment twelve minutes into the half, when Chris McHale’s free-kick into the box was only half cleared, and Sam Alsop followed up with a
long range shot through the crowd of players that Brown saw late before saving well low to his right.
A rash of substitutions with twenty minutes left did little to change matters, and shortly after Hemel increased their lead when Mark Taylor lost the ball in midfield to Cracknell, who then fed a simple pass behind Spittle to send Roberts away one on one with Lewis, and the striker made no mistake with a low finish across the exposed keeper that went in off the inside of
the far post again.
From that point on it was a case of Hemel playing out time, as the home side pressed forward - but once more to little avail.
Paul Lloyd did try his luck from long range that brown caught well, as did substitute Neil Davis, but it was the Tudors who came closest to hitting the back of the net again, when Edgeworth rose at the far post to head Robbie Kean’s corner kick a yard wide of the far post with two minutes left.
It would be true to say that although Hemel are not playing their best football at the moment, they didn’t need to in this match - despite expecting a much tougher test than this from a disappointing Rovers side on the day - So its kind of hard to gauge how much further they have to improve to beat the best of the rest in this division. But it is clear that the side is slowly improving game by game, and those few Tudor fans that made the trip, wend their way back home content with a very satisfactory display & result.

Hemel Town:
Ian Brown, Simon Sweeney, Chris Herron, Fabio Valenti (Robbie Kean), Nathan Bowden-Haase, Yiadom Yeboah, Ollie Burgess, Dean Cracknell, Garry Sippetts (Leon Hibbert), Drew Roberts, Paul Edgeworth. Subs (Not Used): Danny Nicholls Jnr, Chris Wild & Steve Smith.

Bromsgrove Rovers:
Karl Lewis, Chris McHale, Les Hines, Carl Heeley, Lucan Spittle, Sam Alsop, Wayne Dyer, Dave Bridgewater (Mark Taylor), Jermaine Clarke (Neil Davis), Nathan Lamey (Keith Russell), Paul Lloyd. Subs (Not Used): Martin Watters & Chris Taylor.