Worcestershire Sport

Robins continue to struggle

EVESHAM UNITED headed into last night's (Tuesday) visit of Halesowen Town to St George's Lane desperately seeking to stop the rot after suffering their fourth successive Zamaretto Southern League Premier Division defeat in the shape of a 1-0 home loss to Didcot Town on Saturday.
The Robins, who face a daunting trip to leaders Farnborough on Saturday, went into the clash against the Yeltz just five points above the drop zone having been unable to bring a halt to their slump against lowly Didcot.
Michael Hayden's penalty miss at the start of the second half was punished by the Railwaymen who grabbed the winner with eight minutes left through Philip John.
A largely forgettable first half saw little in the way of goalmouth action as both sides cancelled each other out, but six minutes after the restart Evesham blew a golden chance to take the lead.
Jamie Hyde burst into the visitors' box only to be brought down by Ian Samson, but Hayden's spot kick was easily pushed aside by keeper Matthew Trott.
Moments later Danny Lennon rattled Trott's crossbar and Leon Woodley got behind the Didcot defence but no colleague was on hand to put away the midfielder's cross.
Evesham were looking the more likely to make the breakthrough but out of the blue Didcot snatched the points.
There appeared little danger when John gained possession 20 yards out, but an explosive finish gave United keeper Nathan Vaughan no chance.
The visitors defended in numbers to protect their lead and in stoppage time were thankful that substitute Zac Costello's volley from distance screamed the wrong side of the post with Trott beaten.
The outcome had a sense of deja vu about it as Evesham had also seen points snatched away from their grasp in last Tuesday's 2-1 defeat at Chippenham Town.
Evesham had taken a 49th minute lead at Hardenhuish Park when Mark Hands' inch-perfect through ball found substitute Lennon who ran on to coolly beat Chris Snoddy in the Chippenham goal.
Snoddy then denied leading scorer Marcus Palmer before Lennon shot across an unguarded goal after dispossessing Alex Kite.
Lennon should have put the game to bed on the hour but, after rounding Snoddy, was unable to find the net and the miss was to prove costly.
On 84 minutes Greg Tindle crossed from the left and Alan Griffin levelled with a looping header over Vaughan and the hosts bagged a winner five minutes later when the Evesham defence failed to deal with Scott Lye's ball in, which allowed Lewis Powell to drive home an unlikely winner.

• | More
• «Back
• «Home
• Contact the Sports Desk about this story