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Pershore 1sts 4 – 3 Newtown 1sts

Pershore welcomed Newtown to Prince Henry’s in this week’s ENER-G West Midlands League game.

Pershore again used their rotational policy which saw another four changes from last week’s visit to Yardley. Also unfortunately for Pershore Newtown only turned up with ten players which most people would see as an advantage however Pershore have a history of struggling to cope with under strength opponents. Straight from the off it was clear that Newtown were determined not to waste their long journey and immediately started to push forward and create chances which the Pershore defence just about managed to keep out. Pershore on the other hand seemed unable to string two passes together and when they did manage to go forward could not find a way past a well marshalled Newtown defence. 15 minutes into the game and Newtown’s plan to catch Pershore on the break worked perfectly as Pershore lost control of the ball at the half way line and some swift passing between the Newtown forwards resulted in the ball being swept past the helpless Metson in the Pershore goal. Spurred on by going behind Pershore soon forced a short corner which despite the keepers best efforts saw Ed Deacon level the scores at 1 – 1. Not long after going level Pershore were again guilty of being caught on the ball and conceded another breakaway goal to go 2 – 1 down. With a couple of minutes left before half time Pershore managed to win another short corner which Deacon again converted with a powerful strike into the bottom corner to make it 2 – 2 at half time. It speaks volumes for the way Newtown played in the first half that several Pershore players were not even aware they were playing against 10 men.

A more determined and organised Pershore started the second half and soon started to push forward with more intent as they looked to close down the Newtown players. The renewed pressure soon paid dividends as Paul Grummit managed to create space for himself down the right wing and his pass found Jamie Hughes in the D who made no mistake in rifling the ball past the Newtown keeper to finally put Pershore in front at 3 – 2. Pershore well aware that another goal would be needed mounted a period of sustained pressure and eventually this paid off as Paul Murphy expertly deflected a strike into the D to Jamie Hughes who calmly slotted the ball past the Newtown defender and keeper to make it 4 – 2. Pershore having managed to get in front by playing some decent passing hockey for 20 minutes then managed to revert back to their 1^st half form which invited Newtown to push forward again. Some last ditch tackling from Stevenson and Heath maintained Pershore’s 2 goal advantage. However with 10 minutes to go the normally reliable Rushton collected the ball in his own D and rather than clear to the sidelines chose instead to pass it to Newtown’s forward at the top of the D. His powerful shot was cleared of the line by Mark Passmore’s foot and the resulting penalty flick made it 4 – 3. The last couple of minutes was a frantic affair as Pershore grimly held on to their lead until the final whistle. Pershore may have managed to win this match however all credit has to go to the visitors as anyone watching this game would not have thought they were the team playing with 10.