This weeks edition of #MatchReportMonday is brought to us from our official photographer ThreeFiveThree Garry Griffiths and it seemed appropriate that, in the 70th anniversary year of the Worcestershire Schools Football Association, we should cover two games in the region to continue our early round coverage of the national cup competitions.
Worcestershire SFA V Gloucestershire SFA ESFA Under 18 Inter County Trophy Round One
Following on from game one I boarded a train to Malvern where the Worcestershire Under 18 representative side were taking on their Gloucestershire counterparts.
On a misty night at Malvern Town’s HDAnywhere Community Stadium, all those in attendance were treated to a highly absorbing contest with both sides going toe to toe with the Bonfire Night fireworks as a backdrop!
Somehow the home side failed to make their dominance pay and, mainly thanks to a couple of good saves from visiting keeper Lewis Adams and some off colour shooting, the visitors nicked a 1-0 half time lead with a goal against the run of play.
The second half saw the hosts try and battle back on level terms and they were awarded a penalty that would certainly give them their best chance to tie the game up but the impressive Adams saved well to his right.
With the mist rolling in from the Malvern Hills you wondered if it was going to be one of those nights for Worcestershire but goals from Reiss Taylor-Randle and Tom Smith had them in front before a late own goal saw the game finish 3-1 to Worcestershire.
Credit to both sides for giving the supporters a fantastic advert for representative football played in the spirit that typifies schools football. The Worcestershire team progressed to the next round winning 1-5 against Staffordshire SFA, Worcestershire awaits the draw for round three to find out who their next opponents will be.
South Bromsgrove High School V Sidney Stringer Academy ESFA Under 18 Schools Trophy Round Two
The first game of a Worcestershire Double Header took us to South Bromsgrove as they hosted Sidney Stringer Academy in the 2nd round of the Under 18 Schools Trophy.
It was a less than ideal start for the visitors with a later than scheduled arrival due to traffic issues and they found themselves on the end of two excellent scoring performances from Stewart Greenhalgh and James Webster to send them out of this season’s competition.
Greenhalgh opened the scoring, firing into the keeper’s bottom right hand corner before heading home a second from a corner shortly after.
Webster then grabbed his first goal of the game to make it 3-0 but not before Sidney Stringer had come close to reducing the deficit on a couple of occasions, just failing to force home a loose ball in the box from a corner being the best of them.
They paid the price for those misses when Greenhalgh skipped into the box to slot past the keeper and complete his hat-trick before scoring his fourth with a shot from the edge of the box that the visiting keeper saw squeeze past him and over the line.
The second half was a much more even contest although Webster claimed his second and third goals of the game to put the icing on a 7-0 win for the home side, a harsh scoreline on the Sidney Stringer keeper who made a string of excellent saves throughout the game.
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