Match Report | Spalding United (H)
Halesowen leave it late again against Spalding to produce late drama
Match Report
The visitors against the run of play took the lead just after the hour mark. 32 year old former EFL defender Liam Moore’s header looped over Dan Platt, onto the underside of the bar and into the net. The Yeltz managed to equalise just before the 80th minute, after Fin Holmes came off the bench to win the ball just past the halfway line. The teenager found the run of Jason Cowley on the right of the area, who drilled a powerful effort at the near post into the top right.
The clock stuck 86 minutes when Jack Roberts added his 10th goal of the season through a 30 yard free-kick, but that was not the end of the drama. Now the league’s top scorer, Cowley added his 11th of the league season when he dispatched a 96th minute penalty, shortly before him and Moore were sent off. The former for a second yellow, and the latter for a straight red.
The Yeltz took a while to get going in this 9th v 2nd contest, as the visitors put Russ Penn’s side under early pressure. A corner was awarded to the Tulips on 10 minutes, when Jack Roberts found Tosin Olopade. The delivery from Dan Lawlor was flicked away by Milan Butterfield. The Yeltz number 13 was involved to crucial effect two minutes later. A Matt Bondswell ball into the box played Curtis Thompson 1v1. The midfielder rounded Platt, and had an open goal, until Butterfield blocked his shot on route to goal on the line.
The good deed almost turned into a bad one five minutes later for the Yeltz midfielder turned defender. The Tulips Polish striker Bartosz Cybulski robbed Butterfield of the ball and went 1v1. To the rescue Josh Smile got back to force Cybulski away from goal, which allowed Butterfield to get back and snatch the ball back off the Spalding number 10.
The rest of the first 45 belonged to the Yeltz, but none of the pressure warranted a goal. A 23rd minute Jak Hickman cross onto the right foot of Charlie Wragg, saw the loanee control, shoot, but find the midriff of Dan Wilks. Three minutes later McKauley Manning hit a ball forward to Wragg. Former Kettering Town defender Lewis White got there first, but the loose ball fell to Ty Barnett, whose wild effort flew into the Old Hawne Lane car park.
The remaining efforts of the last 15 of the first 45, saw a Manning effort saved by Wilks, a Hickman corner headed away by Roberts, and Cowley’s looped header fly wide of the left post in the fifth minute of stoppage time. Spalding’s only effort of the final 15 saw Roberts hit a ball over to Yusifu Ceesay on the left. The former Hereford man controlled the ball and squared across to Cybulski who had a tap-in, but he collided with Platt for a Yeltz free kick.
The second half started slow, with the only chance before the opening Spalding goal falling in the 54th minute. A Ben Cassidy ball forward finds Wragg on the right. The latter cut inside and squared the ball across to first half substitute Jim Kellermann, whose shot on the edge of the box was kept out down low to Wilks’ left. The opener followed seven minutes later, but Kellermann soon had another effort at goal. The Yeltz substitute scuffed a 71st minute effort wide from 25 yards after a pass from Wragg.
The first goal from Cowley and Roberts’ goal to re-take the Tulips lead were the only events of the 20 minutes that led to stoppage time after the Kellermann strike. In the first minute of six added on in second half additional time, a Cowley shot went wide, before a Cassidy cross to Barnett saw a header flash wide. Our number 9’s 96th minute penalty, of which he won, means the Yeltz make it three games without defeat in a row at home to Spalding and stay on track in the race for the play-offs, with just three points separating us in 10th, and Real Bedford in 4th.
Attendance: 1,217
Yeltz Man of the Match: Jason Cowley
Teams
Yeltz XI: Dan Platt (GK), Jak Hickman, Ben Cassidy, Josh Smile (C), Todd Parker (Jim Kellermann 40’), Charlie Wragg (Fin Holmes 73’), Jason Cowley 🟥 90+10’, Kyle Finn, McKauley Manning, Milan Butterfield, Tyrone Barnett (Reece Mitchell 90+7)
Unused Subs: Luke Postle, Patrick Wood
Spalding XI: Dan Wilks (GK), Tosin Olopade, Matt Bondswell, Liam Moore 🟥 90+9’ (C), Lewis White, Dan Lawlor, Curtis Thompson (Abduramane Sano-Sani 60’), Alfie Bendle, Jack Roberts (Ben Hart 90+2’), Bartosz Cybulski, Yusifu Ceesay
Unused Subs: Jordon Nicholson, Ben Blythe, Josh McCammon