Football
Sporting fall at City

Buy photos » Robbie Hendry powers forward for Bromsgrove Sporting at Lichfield on Saturday. Picture by David Besley.

BROMSGROVE Sporting’s travel sickness continued on Saturday when beaten 2-1 at Lichfield City in Midland Combination Division One.

Sporting, who have won just two out of ten away fixtures in the league, sit fifth in the table as a result of the defeat and will hope for improved fortunes tomorrow (2pm) when they travel to sixth placed Knowle for their final game before Christmas.

Defender Nicky Martin and goalkeeper Tom Savage came in for their Sporting debuts and the visitors edged the first half but were once again left to rue missed chances in front of goal.

Chris Conway saw his 18th minute blocked before Kevin Banner had a free kick well saved by home stopper Craig Johnson a minute later.

Robbie Hendry showed a few neat touches but saw a good opportunity pass him by in the 25th minute as Sporting pushed for the opening goal.

Lichfield were not without chances of their own though and their best chance came when the lively Mark Robinson beat the off-side trap before being brought down by Savage but fortunately for the visitors they had a defender covering so the new keeper escaped with a yellow card.

With no goals in the first half, Sporting came out strongly again at the start of the second and quickly had three shots blocked on the line but still the breakthrough would not come.

And their frustrations grew in the 62nd minute when Robinson headed home a corner to put Lichfield 1-0 ahead.

The goal seemed to unsettle the visitors and seven minutes later a poor pass was intercepted by Sam Buckle who fed Robinson to coolly slide past the advancing Savage.

With Sporting pushing more bodies forward chances became more frequent for Lichfield and only the woodwork denied them on two further occasions.

The visitors worked hard to the end and finally pulled one back with the last kick of the game when substitute Bradley Willimason connected with a cross that went in off the far post.