Men's 1st Team Vs Edgbaston 4

Yardley   4  Edgbaston 4ths  5

Goalscorers : Zach Jarvis, Jeevan Chagger, Noor Zaman, Alex Makepeace

Yardley will be very disappointed to come away on the wrong end of this nine-goal thriller in their last game of 2019.

The home side were delighted with their impressive start to the game, racing to a two-goal lead within the first ten minutes or so. Good approach play led to a short corner that came out to Zach whose impressive drag flick gave the visitors’ defence no chance. Shortly after this, Jeevan picked up the ball midway into the opponents’ half and stormed into the D and fired home a fierce shot to give his side a great start to the game. At this stage Yardley continued to press forward with Edgbaston reduced to the occasional foray forward with no real threat.

However, Edgbaston gradually got their game together and began to exert much more pressure. One of their more frequent attacks led to a pass into the D which was not cleared and pounced on and forced home to reduce the arrears. Edgbaston continued with their more confident approach play, but was Yardley who restored their two-goal lead when good approach work by Zach down the right flank set up a chance for Noor to score with a simple enough tap in. The visitors were still well in this game and approaching half-time, forced a short corner that was confidently put away.

With a 3-2 score at half-time Yardley realised they still had plenty of work to do and Edgbaston with their confidence fully restored.

The start of the second half saw both teams striving to get back into their stride. It was Edgbaston who struck first with another well taken short corner. The visitors were now on top and Yardley wondering how they had let this happen. Worse was to follow for Yardley as another Edgbaston short corner was only partially cleared and passed back into the D and a shot into the goal gave the visitors the lead.

Yardley tried to rescue their game. Jeevan went very close on a couple of occasions. Eventually a positive move by Noor to the right of the D, set up Alex who spectacularly slammed home an equaliser. With the game entering its end stages, both teams were working hard to get the winner. Almost on the final whistle, there was an unfortunate foot infringement on the Yardley goal-line to set up a penalty flick for the visitors. The flick gave Neal no chance and allowed Edgbaston to achieve a remarkable turn-around to claim all three points.

Yardley now go into the festive period wondering how and why they could not capitalise on their fine start. They now have to wait until Jan 11th to complete the first half of the league programme, away at bottom club, Stratford.