Men's 1st Team Vs Droitwich Spa 1

YARDLEY   1      DROITWICH SPA  1sts       1

In arguably one of their toughest fixtures to date, Yardley were forced to line up with at least four mainstay players unavailable through work commitments or injury. As it turned out, the stand-in players played their part as Yardley and Droitwich shared the points at the end of  a close contest.

Yardley went on the attack right from the off and created a couple of decent half chances. Droitwich too made their intentions clear with some smart moves of their own, but the Yardley defence held strong to keep them out. Droitwich forced a series of short scorners but they could not capitalise on any of them. Then twenty minutes into the half, Yardley edged in front. A good attack led to good work on the left and a pass into the D from there was met by a diving Kyle Letts to put the ball into the goal. Unfortunately, Kyle injured his knee in his efforts and needed to go off for treatment. That was partly off-set by gaining Jeevan into the game after his morning commitments.  The game remained fairly evenly poised, Yardley going close for a second and Droitwich making every effort to get back into the game, but being well marshalled by all those in the Yardley defence.

At half-time Yardley were happy enough to be in the lead, and pleased to see Kyle re-joining the fray. However, Paul had to leave to organise the Badgers at Blossomfield. Droitwich started the second half the brighter of the two sides. Yardley’s defence still held firm with Mat, Jeevan, Ricky and Zach doing some sterling work. Neal too needed to produce his usual heroics at times.  Droitwich did manage an equaliser that their efforts probably deserved. Droitwich then thought they had grabbed the winner, but the effort was disallowed for a foot infringement. The end game saw Droitwich looking the more likely to score next, but they did not make the most of their chances. Yardley held out strongly and were glad enough to share the points in the end.

Yardley complete the first half of the league campaign away at Bromsgrove.