Halesowen Town 0 Royston Town 3 - Report

Yeltz manager Paul Smith first thoughts were on a nasty injury to Josh Ezewele. “It looks like a dislocated shoulder. Anything that can go wrong is going wrong, we’re not playing well, not taking chances and giving awful goals away. It’s becoming all too common. It’s not normal for us, for my five years here this is our worst spell, it’s not nice. It hurts everyone but we have to find a way out of it. We’re low in confidence but it’s important we dig in and find a way.”

Halesowen earned four early right-wing corners but failed to trouble Royston goalkeeper Louis Chadwick in a scrappy opening. A 20th minute Yeltz left wing corner was cleared and another 34th minute corner came to nothing as the Crows remained solid at the back in a first-half lacking quality.

Royston took a 26th minute lead in simple fashion when Halesowen lost the ball in midfield allowing Kian Harness to cross from the left and Samson Esan helped on for recent signing Andronicos GEORGIOU to sweep home his first Royston goal from 12 yards out.

Matters worsened for the Yeltz when central defender Tom Taylor was dismissed with a straight red card for bringing down Royston captain Adam Murray just inside the penalty box after 36 minutes and GEORGIOU fired the resulting 38th minute penalty past Platt to double Royston’s lead. Georgiou then fired a loose ball over Halesowen’s bar in first-half injury time in search of his hat-trick.

At the start of the second period Royston’s captain Murray headed home but was ruled out for offside. For ten-man Halesowen a low 51st minute shot from Miracle Okafor was saved by Louis Chadwick and Chadwick save Jack Holmes’ effort two minutes later.

The Crows made it a convincing 3-0 in the 54th minute after Georgiou was denied his hat-trick following a jinking run and although Ryan Wynter cleared off the line HARNESS reacted quickly to force home from close range. Georgiou came close again when he curled just past the post after 72 minutes.

Ten-man Halesowen huffed and puffed but there was absolutely no way back into the game although in the final minutes Chadwick made a good save from Kieren Donnelly and Okafor back-heeled just wide at the end of a woeful day for the Yeltz.

Halesowen Town: Dan Platt (c); Josh Ezewele (Rhys Hilton 76), Luke Redfern, Todd Parker, Ryan Wynter, Thomas Taylor, Jack Holmes, Nathan Hayward (Jak Hickman 55), Miracle Okafor, Caine Elliott (Reece Michell 41), Kieren Donnelly. Subs Not Used: Richard Gregory, Ryan Boothe.

Royston Town: Louis Chadwick; Oluwakoyejo Dawodu, Charlie Johnson (Alfie Williams 55), Joshua Coldicott-Stevens, Adam Murray (c), Ronnie Henry, Samson Esan (Fabio Virciglio 67), James Brighton, Kian Harness, Andronicos Georgiou (MacKye Townsend-West 83), Sam Mvemba. Subs Not Used: Damaray Anyadike, Edward Asafu-Adjaye.

Referee: Michael Wright Attendance: 929

Booked: Donnelly (58), Brighton (78), Murray (88)

Sent Off: Taylor (36)