It was a tough afternoon for the Yellows, as we were defeated by a 4-1 by Halesowen in front of a raucous crowd of 1303 in a game that was closer than the scoreline suggests.
Inside two minutes, we should have been a goal up. Joe Neal squaring across the penalty area to Romario Dunne but his poked effort trickled just wide of the post, a golden opportunity went begging and it didn’t take long for our hosts to punish that mistake. Bradders made a great stop to deny Miracle Okafor, but the ball fell at an acute angle and Okafor pounced on the rebound to fire across goal and in, sending ‘The Shed’ wild. 10 minutes after that, it was a penalty for the hosts, I think I've lost count of how many penalties given away this season, and Olu went into the book for his tackle. Okafor stepped up... and converted. It really could easily have been 3-0, but we were handed a bit of luck, finally, the ball hitting off the far post, then the near post, before ultimately being cleared by Ollie Brown. The flow of the game changed just like the weather, first sunshine and then driving rain. We went into the break 2 behind.

In the second half, we came out with renewed vigour and Joe Neal fired home across goal from close range to get us within touching distance of being level! As is so often the case when you are chasing a game, you leave gaps and unfortunately we couldn’t quite contain that man Okafor who rounded Bradbrook and tapped into an empty net. Billy Walsh did come on for his third appearance in a row, and it was a league debut for him, another massive milestone for our Academy Captain and new loanee Malachi Napa showed that he's going to be a fine addition to the squad with a 90 minute appearance full of running and movement. Every cloud.
Deep into stoppage time, a free kick was whipped in, and it somehow fell to the feet of Richard Gregory who finished finely. Well, that wasn’t the result we wanted. It was always going to be tough, but even more so when you play in front of a crowd of 1303, we did manage to silence them at times but fair play to Halesowen’s fans, some great post-match celebrations.
Next up, we are at home to Telford so, let's all make a huge effort to back the boys more than ever so we can get our first home three points,
UP THE SUDS
By Isaac Mennie