Match 2 of the season and our first travel away from home. A horrible friday night turned into a nice saturday morning weather wise with a nice pitch to play on. Shame about the massive slope just off the pitch though!
Going up against Brierley Hill was always going to be a tough match due to the experience in the side and again we had to make our chances count in front of goal.
2 changes were made to the starting line up with luke coming in for Groves at right back and Robbie taking Lee's place on the left wing. LHC started to press from the start but as predicted Brierley Hill proved to be difficult to break down at the back. A few long back down the Brierley hill left hand side were off side and that was about all the early action there was. A long ball down the center was latched on to by an on side stirker with Carl doing enough in goal to put the striker off and his shot hit the post and went wide. This proved to be a wake up call for LHC with the majority of the pressure coming from us over the next few minutes. Shots from both Callum and Bob we parried away by the Brierley Hill keeper. The first goal came with about 30 mins gone, a Brierley hill freekick came in from about 25 yards out, the ball was flicked on and then a glancing header knocking the ball past Carl into the net. Offisde if ever i've seen on but the young linesman kept his flag down to award the goal. The rest of the half panned out with both teams having possesion but no one really taking the chance to put the ball in the net.
The second half kicked off with LHC putting the pressure on again. A few changes to formation made us more difficult to break down in midfield and help keep a bit of pressure off the defence. Brainy should have scored but his effort was cleared off the line. It was Brierley Hill who managed to get the ball in the net again though when a long ball bounced down the middle of the pitch and their striker managed to shin it up and over the on rushing Carl and everyone just watched if land in the net. LHC need a goal soon to get back into the game and we changed the formation to 4-3-3 to try and get it. After the change we looked more likely to get with a string of chances all saved or slightly wide. Pushing luke up from right back to right midfield paid off 10 mins from the end when he was brought down and a freekick was awarded. Lee lofted the ball into the penalty area and "super-sub" shane managed to get his head to it and the ball sailed into the top corner with the keeper unable to get more than a finger to it. After this LHC were uplifted and went in search of the equaliser, again Brainy had an effort cleared off the line and Andy headed wide from a Webby long throw. In the end we lost 2-1 but battled to the end for that second goal.
This match played out a lot like last week, with LHC regreting not converting more of the chances that fell to us. Special mentions for Webby and Foxy who constantly ran around for the entire 90 mins. Also to Shane the super sub who was energetic from the moment he got on to the pitch. Shance wishes on dedicate his goal to his friend Mike Davies who left LHC after the Halesowen Athletic match.
Another tough test next week with Common Ground visiting Coseley.
