A SECOND-HALF capitulation meant it was a tough night at the office for Bromsgrove Sporting in Tuesday night’s 5-1 drubbing away to Hednesford Town.
The Rouslers were left reeling at full-time at Keys Park – just three days after a 2-0 home reverse against Hitchin Town – leaving Sporting with an unwanted three-match losing streak.
It is very much alien territory for the club at the moment, which gives an idea of the high standards and successes achieved at the club in recent years by Brendan Kelly and co.
The midweek result could have been all so different for Sporting, had the visitors not conceded in first-half stoppage time after Courtney Richards smashed Bromsgrove into a 32nd-minute lead.
Reflecting on the result, Kelly says the second-half showing of his side was a complete reverse of the good work done in the first period.
“In the second half we just capitulated,” he said.
“We lost our shape and did not match their work rate. Our quality was poor too – as a team we defended badly and got punished. It’s another bad day. but we have to stick together and try turn it around.
“In the first half, we had a good shape about us and it was fairly even. They had a lot of possession, but it was not in areas that hurt us.
“Their goal came from us not learning from our mistakes and we gave away another needless free kick, that they score from.”
While Mikey Taylor was unable to fire the visitors into the lead midway through the first half from the spot, his teammate Richards made amends with a powerful 20-yard drive that was too hot for Andy Wycherley to handle.
But with Louis Dodds hammering home a rebound inside the box after an initial attempt was blocked on the stroke of half-time, the balance of the game was turned completely upside down.
Dan Turner needed only six minutes to put the Pitmen in front when picking out the bottom corner, followed by Dodds’ second with 23 minutes to play.
And while Daniel Platt performed heroics to keep out an Anthony Dwyer penalty, he was helpless to prevent Kyle Rowley and Ben Bailey scoring headers from successive corners late on.
Sporting now look to Saturday’s FA Trophy home tie with Coleshill Town (3pm) as a welcome distraction to their league struggles, taking on a side that are well-known to Bromsgrove given their Southern Division One Central battles in the 2018/19 campaign.
