Wednesbury were hosts this week to a Barford X1 in the last of our three friendly games for the pre season run in.

The team were regulars, Ash Palmer, Tim Wilding and Marcus Bourne all missing and Nathan Bourne carrying an injury which was exacerbated during the first half when he jarred his knee the team were well below full strength but with young players like Tom Roberts, Dan Cross and Joe Catell stepping into the fray they game looked as if it would not be a whitewash.

Wednesbury started off strongly and although Barford were on the attack from the off the game looked reasonably balanced. Unfortunately 10 mins in a shot by Tigers saw Bourne flat footed and going in the wrong direction. The keeper unfortunately jarred his knee as the ball went in for number one and that left the keeper less than fully mobile for the rest of the game.

Mike Brown was hit in the head with the ball which came up off a stick in a tackle and saw him need to take time out to recover from the hit on 18 mins.

Barford made it 0 v 2 on 20 mins when the midfield lost touch with the defence to loose the Barford attack into space against two defenders.

However Wednesbury were not to be out done when Bellingham was through on 25 mins with just a touch on the through ball required but he was just short on reach. On the next attack Bellingham again was in but only managed to force a long corner which did not return any result. On 27 mins Joe Catell had a run at the Barford defence but was held at bay. Wednesbury were awarded a penalty corner on 30 minutes but there was a further infringement and the penalty corner was re-taken this time with Scott Craddock converting to make the score 1 v 2.

However on 3oth minute, probably one of the best moments in the game, a move with Probert and Catell saw the young Wednesbury winger leave the Barford midfield and defence wandering what had happened as he collected the ball and rounding a player ran to the by-line. Catell attacked the defender and ran down the back line to the keeper intending to lay the ball off to his fellow attacker Probert, but the final delivery was left just too late and the ball was cut out. What a shame as the lad deserved to get something from that move.

Wednesbury had the chance to even things up just before the half time whistle when a penalty corner strike went disappointingly just wide.

Within 7 minutes of the re-start, on 42 mins, Barford increased their lead to 1 v 3 as a result of defensive error and a bad mistake by Bourne in between the posts. Most unusual for the Wednesbury keeper but the injury early on must have been taking its toll at this point. Jamie Probert received the only disciplinary of a green card and was off for 2 mins on 49th.

Bellingham did have the chance to get the score line to 2 v 3 after some good work again by the young man of the match Joe Catell but Bellinghams final shot, good as it was, was not enough to beat the keeper who saved well.

Final result a disappointing 1 v 3

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