Tamworth Men's Firsts Vs Bloxwich 2

Tamworth Men’s First XI won 5-3 at home to Bloxwich on Saturday to seal second place and confirm promotion to West Midlands Division 1.  Tamworth knew that a win would guarantee they could not be caught and had a strong side available against their nearest challengers in third placed Bloxwich.  Having drawn the reverse fixture they knew that this could be a tough opponent but with an aggressive high press Tamworth created scoring chances from the off and got off to the perfect start by taking a two goal lead in the opening ten minutes.  The first saw three players have the opportunity to score with Ryan Brisco denied and Ben Popple mis hitting on the rebound it was Tom Hancox who finally put the ball away with his shot from the centre of the D heading for the top left before looping off the keepers stick into the opposite side of the goal.  Popple then added the second when he drove into the left hand side of the D and struck reverse stick across goal into the corner.  Tamworth could and should have added further goals but were left to rue missed opportunities as Bloxwich fought their way back into the game and scored twice to level the tie at half time.

Town aimed to regroup after the interval but looked to have thrown away their two goal lead as Bloxwich completed the turnaround with a goal in the early stages of the second half but with the firepower Tamworth possess they were able to remain calm and slowly worked their way back into the game.  Hancox set them on their way, receiving a pass from Connor Diggins on the right, before weaving his way into the D and slotting in under the body of the keeper and it was down this side that Tamworth had further joy when Tom Sperrink got in behind the Bloxwich defence and cut back from Popple to slap in Tamworth’s fourth and restore their lead.  Bloxwich continued to push for an equaliser and James Miles in goal made a series of excellent saves, showing alertness to race off his line on a couple of occasions and smother danger and was ably assisted by Ian Wagstaff and Jake Mallinder at the back who cleared the ball from danger.  Tamworth would have the final say with Ryan Brisco breaking through the visitors defence before laying off for Sperrink to tap in.

Another team effort from Tamworth who can now go into the final two games of the season looking for the 9 goals needed to rack up 100 league goals and finish off what has been a successful season.