EFFICIENT YELTZ BRING RUGBY BACK DOWN TO EARTH

High flying Halesowen Town came out eventual comfortable winners against Valley extending their run to 23 games without defeat.

By Craig Webb.

Photo: Martin Pulley

Defenders Michael Love and Delroy Gordon compete for the ball during the first half at Butlin Road.

Rugby failed to build on the win over Oxford against their visitors but still put in an encouraging performance and the scoreline had a flattering look in the end.

Manager Lee Colkin made one change from Saturday with Karl Fellows coming in for Sam Birtwhistle, with David Kolodynski continuing his comeback from injury with another start.

The visitors were in a rich vein of form before the game on the back of a 22 game unbeaten run stretching back to early October, so Town knew this was going to be a tough match.

The away side made the better start with both former Aston Villa player Stefan Moore and former Rugby star David Blenkinsopp making early saves for Andy Stevens.

It was Blenkinsopp though who put his current club ahead in the 17th minute. A bouncing ball from a freekick found Moore who squared to the striker to shoot and score from close range.

Rugby’s heads didn’t drop and they had their first chance on 24 minutes when captain Chris Tullin saw his shot go high over the bar from Matt Brown’s layoff. Both sides were struggling to play neat football, with Rugby trying hard to penetrate Halesowen’s rearguard but with little luck, though Ross Oulton did have tame shot from a Sam Young’a pass.

Rugby had to make an early second half substitution when Brown had to come off due to an injury being replaced by Greg Smith, and he nearly made an immediate impact when his effort taking a deflection before being shepherded out to safety.

Scott Rickards was unlucky when his floated ball into the penalty area, but Fellows just got enough of it to put it over the bar for a corner.

From the corner, Henry Eze doubled the visitors lead with 20 minutes left when the Town defence failed to clear from the area and he hit a rasping shot past the helpless Stevens.

Stevens though pulled off a world class save with 15 minutes left from Danny Edwards who was already turning round to celebrate, when Stevens punched the ball away to safety when it seemed like it heading into the goal.

Unfortunately, though he couldn’t do anything to stop David McDermott scoring The Yeltz’s third. Moore released substitute Nathan Smith and just as the ball seemed to be going out to play, he crossed over to McDermott who blasted it past the keeper.

Rugby have little time to rest, with a massive game to Swindon on Thursday.

Valley Line-up: Stevens; Gordon, Fellows, Love (Richards); Stringfellow, Hollist (Gearing), Youngs, Tullin, Oulton; Brown (Smith), Kolodynski. Subs not used: Bell. Booked: Smith

Halesowen Town: Bussey, Cowley, Turner, Daly, Eze, Denny, McDermott, Rickards, Moore, Blenkinsopp, Edwards. Subs: Connor, N Smith, Fulford, Griffiths, Morley