Tamworth Men's Firsts Vs Nottingham

Tamworth Men’s First XI lost 5-2 at home to Nottingham in the final pre-season friendly before league games start next week.  Town had started brightly and despite going behind bounced back to equalise when Ben Popple picked out Tom Sperrink who flicked the ball in from close range.  Unfortunately Nottingham took the lead again with a penalty corner to hold a 2-1 lead at half time.

In the second half Nottingham went down to 10 men due to an injury but Tamworth were unable to make the extra man count with the visitors doubling their advantage when another penalty corner took a heavy deflection to beat Tony Banks.  Tamworth responded well, scoring an excellent breakaway goal with Tom Hancox and Ryan Brisco involved in the build-up before Ben Popple coolly slotted home reverse stick from a tight angle.  The hosts then looked to complete the comeback however a mixture of mistakes and ill-discipline allowed Nottingham to take a stranglehold of the game and they scored twice more to record a convincing win.

Tamworth will need to improve in next Saturday’s league fixture at home to Leicester Westleigh but showed some encouraging signs to be built on including another confident showing from youngster Sam Turner and strong performances from Ross Carter and man of the match Dave Langford.