Unofficial Halesowen Town FC Forum

It's been scrappy this half, with a lot of free kicks (or it seems so) and we're not really dominating the play.

Hayward and Manning are on

Cobourne hit the bar after a good run from Birch.

Cobourne has had to go off after doing the splits

Just heard the red saying there'll be 6 minutes added tine in a minute or two. If this had been a World Cup game, with all the stopping and injuries, we'd have had about 15 minutes.

Great save from their keeper from Birch after a nice run from Homer.

Finished 2-1. Overall we deserved the win, but it was really messy at umes.

Another 3 points in the bag and a well battled win but that was tedious.
Never known such a poor ref. Dont think he knew players were allowed to tackle and touch each other.
It got to the stage where you could see players actually backing out of challenges.
Birch MOM for me
Had we taken our chances would have been an easy victory. Sim seems to have lost all his confidence in front of goal at present.

Still onwards and Yaxley next week.
Bench looked strong today which bodes well for the Christmas programme.

Ditto from last week really. Very happy with the 3points to keep us in the hunt but need to improve performancewise still. We will play much tougher teams than this, but at least we saw it over the line against them. We had the chances to kill it but seemed like rabbits caught in the headlights at the end! Thought Birch was very good today and the loanee Tonge was once again impressive. Well done lads anyway, let's now get a confidence boosting cricket score next week!

Northern Premier League Midlands – Saturday, 3rd December 2022

Halesowen Town 2 Cambridge City 1

Halesowen came from behind in an early lunch-time kick-off against in-form Cambridge to maintain their 100% home record, writes DJ.

Yeltz joint-manager Martin Sockett was “delighted with the three points. Cambridge are in a rich vein of form, so we knew it was not going to be easy. They are defensively good but we still created plenty of chances. Too many free-kicks stopped our flow in the second half, but we dealt with everything.”

In an unchanged home line-up from last week’s victory over Chasetown, Richard Gregory’s early 4th minute shot was cleared off the line and Cambridge goalkeeper Joe Welch grabbed the ball at Gregory’s feet from Brad Birch’s 10th minute cross. A good effort from Cambridge’s Jarid Robson fell just wide a minute later.

But the Lilywhites snatched a 19th minute lead when Dan Cotton’s corner was headed home with a free header in front of goal by Bradley GOTHARD.

Halesowen responded, but in-form Cambridge’s solid back-line proved a tough nut to crack as Birch put a back-header wide from Josh Ezewele’s 24th minute free-kick and Jamie Insall wasted a chance when put through two minutes later.

The Yeltz then finished the first half in fine style to take a lead into the interval. The equaliser came from clever movement at a 30th minute corner when Insall flicked a header on for BIRCH to sweep the ball home. A 33rd minute cross from Ezewele was cut out by Welch and a 38th minute cross from Simeon Cobourne was turned away for a corner. Cobourne then set up Birch to drive a low 39th minute shot wide.

GREGORY drilled home Halesowen’s winner in first-half injury time from the penalty spot after Cotton clipped Ezewele’s legs. There was still enough time in the first period for Cobourne to be put free on goal but he couldn’t convert his final shot.

The second half was a scrappier affair, frequently interrupted by free-kicks breaking up the game, but Halesowen defended solidly and never looked in danger of losing the lead. Ezewele’s low shot from a 47th minute corner was collected by Welch and Gregory found the side-netting from Ezewele’s 70th minute corner. Home substitute Nathan Hayward struck a loose ball just over the bar after 72 minutes and Birch set up Cobourne to clip the top of the crossbar three minutes later. Welch grabbed the ball at Cobourne’s feet in the 80th minute at the end of a neat move and young substitute Taylor Homer did well down the left to set up Birch in the final minute with his shot tipped over the bar by Welch.

Halesowen Town: Dan Platt; Josh Ezewele, Oscar Tonge, Josh Quaynor, Kieran Morris (c), Nat Kelly, Kieran Donnelly (McKauley Manning 60), Brad Birch, Jamie Insall (Nathan Hayward 71), Richard Gregory, Simeon Cobourne (Taylor Homer 82). Subs Not Used: Tom Turton, Rob Evans.

Cambridge City: Joe Welch; Luca Doorbar-Baptist, Bradley Gothard, Isaac Maynard, Yaw Ofosu (c), Daniel Akubuine, Jake Battersby (Ryan Ingrey 61), Simon Swinton, Tom Waumsley, Jarid Robson, Dan Cotton. Sub Not Used: Caleb Chandler, Nathan Olukanmi, Taylor Parr, Scott Bridges.

Referee: Nathanael Wormleighton Attendance: 766
Booked: Maynard (24), Akubuine (37), Swinton (45), Insall (45), Cobourne (48), Morris (53), Kelly (57), Waumsley (68), Ofosu (85)
‘Tulleys Print’ HTFC Man of the Match selected by ACE Embroidery: Nat Kelly
Non-League Paper Man of the Match: Brad Birch

Coleshill 3 - 1 Stamford.