Poole keeps his cool to fire Sporting to another victory

Having finished runners-up in Beacon Sunday League’s top tier last season when going under the banner of Sedgley & Gornal United, the newly-named Sedgley Sporting emerged with maximum points for the third successive game when edging home 2-1, writes Dave McClean.

In a closely contested Concentric Sales & Lettings Western Division affair, Sam Stokes broke the deadlock for CTS on 55 minutes when he too made no mistake from the spot.

With 15 minutes to go, Tom Timmins levelled matters for Sporting, before Gregg Poole held his nerve in the very last minute to secure all three points for the visitors, who occupy second spot on goal difference from Woodside Inn, with a match in hand.

Woodside recovered from their first league defeat the previous weekend to hit visiting Coseley 6-0, goals from Reece Harper, Kyle Carter, Adam West, Morgan Booth and Steve Coates (two) inflicting the damage. An outstanding 35-yard volley from Coates was the pick of the bunch.

Chasing down the top two early on are Netherton Tigers and Blades FC, who are both two points adrift after respective victories over Sporting Black Country (12-3) and Wrens Nest Rangers (7-3).

Seven players were on the scoresheet for the Tigers and leading the charge was four-goal Luke Fellows, with good support from Kyle Maxwell, Kurtis Wedgbury (both two), Kieran Fellows, Liam Hickman, Dean Powers and Declan Fellows. The replies came from Scott Pearson (two) and Bradley Abrahams.

Hat-trick hero Jack Hill was the player in form for Blades, whose other efforts came from Alistair Brown, Kieran Hearne, Callum Allchurch and Louis Richards. Wrens Nest, who had led 3-2 at the interval, had Tyler Maryland (two) and Tom Winnell finding the target.

After opening with three successive defeats, Sedgley Rangers got off the mark with a hard-fought 2-1 home success against local rivals Dudley Rangers United, with Gregg Corbett and an own goal securing the spoils, while Oly Hartland responded.

There was a second league win in three for FC Premier 2014 as they recovered from conceding two first-half goals to emerge worthy 5-2 victors against visiting AFC Sporting Gornal.

Dan Meredith was the star of this performance for Premier with a fine treble, supported by Jermelle Banner and an own goal. Jordan Robinson and Grant Davis had given AFC Sporting a promising start before Premier stormed back.

In the Paycare Eastern section, early pacesetters Trysull Athletic were the comeback kings as they struck back from two goals adrift to sink visiting Essington AFC who, like the former, had taken maximum points from their opening two fixtures.

Athletic, who had recovered to lead 3-2 at the break, eventually made it six of the best in the second period as four-goal Will Spruce pushed his early season tally to seven in three matches. Also on the mark for Trysull were Adam Craig and Dan Lloyd-Hickman, with Ryan Matthews and Mathew Hogg responding.

Compton FC retained their unbeaten record, but let two points slip when held to a 1-1 draw at home to Codsall Station. Mike Dwight had given Codsall the lead, before Inderjit Grewal secured the draw and helped Compton move second in the table.

It was two wins in three for last season’s top tier champions Claregate Park Rangers who ran riot in the opening 45 minutes cracking no fewer than nine goals.

They added just one more after the break to emerge emphatic 10-1 victors over a shell-shocked Wyrley U21 Colts for whom Fraser Smith netted the consolation goal. Rodney Williams and Issac Meggoe bagged trebles for Claregate, who also had Dan Lawrence (two), Stefan Bernard and Jordan Stevens on target.

Second wins in three were secured by FC Premier U21s and AFC Bloxwich over East Park (4-1) and Bushbury Hill (5-1) respectively. The former made it successive victories as Reagan Palethorpe (two), Jianni Singh and Jacob Jones were on target, with Aaron Furey replying.

A Reece Berry double led the way for Bloxwich, who also had Liam Parton, Keenan Bailey and a Tom Wright penalty stealing the limelight.