Jai Rowe Makes Redditch Pay

Barwell finished 2018 with a superb 4-0 win over Redditch United. Goals from Eze, Hickey, Davidson-Miller and McDonald were the Just reward for a fine team performance.

Barwell started brightly and didn’t give their opponents time to settle. The early stages saw three corners for the Canaries, one of which was put just over the bar by man of the match Jai Rowe.

On 16 minutes another corner led to the first goal with Henry Eze heading in low to the bottom corner to make it 1-0. This was the big defenders second goal since joining from Stamford before Christmas.

On 29 minutes Tomkinson had the ball in the net but McDonald was deemed to have pushed a defender as the cross came in from Rowe.

Jai Rowe was causing the Redditch defence a lot of problems and he did this all through the game. Percival and McDonald were linking well with Rowe to create some lovely football from the right hand side - something that Redditch struggled with all through the match.

The first half ended at 1-0 but it felt like Barwell would need a second goal to be sure of the win.

Another Barwell goal was disallowed on 49 minutes as McDonald was offside tapping in a ball that had come back off the crossbar. It was a strong header from Eze that had crashed against the bar and was unlucky not to go in.

The game opened up as 70 minutes came up and Redditch looked to try and force the equaliser. However, they never really tested Castle and most attempts were well wide or over the bar.

Davidson-Miller replaced Jamie Towers on 75 minutes and had an immediate impact when he was brought down inside the box after taking on two Redditch defenders. Top scorer this season, Brady Hickey smashed the penalty home to make it 2-0.

After that it was all Barwell as Redditch began to tire. The third goal came in the 82nd minute when Davidson-Miller was on hand to tap in a cross from Putman.

The 4th came in the 89th minute when McDonald was on hand to volley in the ball after great work from Alex Tomkinson who had charged forward with the ball to make the opening.

Jai Rowe was announced as man of the match but this was a day when all 13 players who featured were excellent. The Canaries has good spells of possession and used the ball well with direct attacking play being a feature of the game.

This was the only the home side’s 3rd win at Kirkby Road this season but came soon after the second which was a 6-1 thumping of St Neots Town 11 days preciously. In fact in the last 3 home games Barwell have scored 12 goals and can go into 2019 in an optimistic mood.

Man of match - Jai Rowe
Attendance - 189