“I am very disappointed to say the least! Not enough of our players took responsibility!” This was Alex Sykes summation after Shortwood’s third home defeat on the trot. The side looked a pale imitation of the side from last season and although they created the better chances they looked short of confidence. Wood may point at the sending off of Ed Weeks after 80 minutes with both goals coming after that pivotal moment but in truth their performance was lacking before that.
The referee set his stall out with a couple of very soft yellow cards early on – including one for Weeks and it was inevitable that someone would pay the price.
Both sides enjoyed early spells of possession without looking particularly dangerous but after 17 minutes Andy Lewis had a goal bound shot blocked and Jake Lee fired the rebound over. Town responded and Lovett made a good double save to keep Shortwood level after 25 minutes. Just before the break Webb dropped a header just over the Wood bar.

The second half was a little brighter. Bidmead fired over for the visitors and Town keeper Tobin was out quickly to deny Morford and then made a fine save to keep out a Meredith header. Meredith then had a shot deflected inches wide. Meanwhile the yellow card continued to mount in a game where there was only one bad challenge before Weeks received his second with 10 minutes to go. Lee set up Adam Price but his shot was very wide before Town took the lead after 85 minutes. Town constructed a good move which left Beadle time and space to shoot low into the bottom corner. Peare headed over for Shortwood but in injury time Kam English raced through before chipping over the advancing Lovett to seal Shortwood’s fate.

Shortwood can only hope that they can lift themselves before the bank holiday weekend which sees them travel to Swindon Supermarine on Saturday before welcoming Evesham on bank holiday Monday.

Team: Lovett, Marks, Bennett, Lewis, Weeks, Hancock (Peare 72), Davies (Humphreys 75), Withington, Lee, Morford (Price 62), Meredith

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