TUDOR TALK

[tapper]

Saturday 18th August
Southern League Premier Division
Hemel Town 3 Halesowen Town 3

This was a fairly even match, as two clubs who will expect to be in the promotion mix come April battled out a draw littered with early season defensive mistakes. The match was in the end though, was only spoiled as a spectacle by the injury to Aaron Cavill (which saw him stretchered off four minutes into injury time) and by some odd decisions by the match official.
Halesowen started the brighter of the two sides and for the first half an hour came close to breaking the deadlock through Duane Darby and Shane Paul. But Hemel slowly fought back, and it was they that took the lead on forty one minutes, as Drew Roberts converted from the penalty spot after referee Blackledge had adjudged that Liam McDonald had pushed Ollie Burgess to the ground from behind.
The lead lasted just three minutes however as Halesowen caught Hemel playing out time at the back, and Paul Devlin blasted his way past Nathan Bowden-Haase before drilling home a low shot from twenty yards.
The Yeltz were forced into an early substitution in the second half, and sub Aaron Farrell nearly gave them the lead on fifty three minutes, when Paul’s ball over the home defence left him with just keeper Steve Smith to beat. But having rounded Smith and driven himself too wide, Farrell saw his eventual shot toward goal cleared off the line at the near post by Hemel skipper Paul Edgeworth, who had tracked back well.
Unfortunately referee Blackledge then decided just before the hour to penalise Bowden-Haase for a very dubious foul on Devlin as he cleared the ball out of his area - the striker picking himself up to convert the controversial spot kick & put the visitors in front.
On sixty six minutes however the Tudors were level again. Roberts scored the goal of the game when he latched onto Cavill’s low infield pass to the ‘D’, and in one movement chipped an intelligent curling, dipping shot over Yeltz keeper James Dormond, who had strayed off his line.
As Halesowen now pressed forward again, Hemel’s defence started to wilt under the pressure, and on seventy five minutes Paul planted a cross to the middle of the box, where it found the unmarked head of Eddy Booth who steered his effort inside Smith’s left hand post, for an all too easy strike.
Farrell then saw his shot blocked on the line by Robbie Kean as Halesowen threatened to wrap the game up, but slowly as before, Hemel started to put a few moves together themselves, and finally substitute Dean Cracknell equalised with a low shot from eighteen yards out, that caught Dormond edging the wrong way.
All in all this was not a bad effort from the Tudors as Halesowen showed that they are a dangerous side, but Hemel fans were asking why manager Steve Bateman decided to play midfielder Edgeworth in central defence, when last season’s best defender Yiadom Yeboah sat twiddling his thumbs on the bench? It gave the Tudors an uncomfortable look at the back that never really worked last season when tried.
Still, it’s a long haul to April, and there’s plenty of time yet for Bateman and Danny Nicholls to iron out the obvious kinks.

Hemel Town:
Steve Smith, Simon Sweeney, Chris Herron, Aaron Cavill, Nathan Bowden-Haase, Steve Sinclair (Dean Cracknell), Ollie Burgess, Robbie Kean (Jamie Kearns), Garry Sippetts (Josh Sozzo), Drew Roberts, Paul Edgeworth.
Subs (Not Used): Yiadom Yeboah & Ian Brown.

Halesowen Town:
James Dormond, Sean Platt, Davion Hamilton, Eddy Booth, Gary Knight, Nick Amos, Jay Denny, Shane Paul, Paul Devlin, Duane Darby (Aaron Farrell), Liam McDonald (David Haywood).
Subs (Not Used): Azariah O’Garro, Lee Williams & Stuart Pierpoint.

[steve]

Excellent report Tapper.Overall I thought it was a good performance today,just a bit gutting that our old defensive frailities re-surfaced.Their 3rd goal was typical Hemel defending,a free header in the 6 yard box.Strange decision to keep Yeboah sitting on the bench while replacing him in defence with Edgeworth.