Saturday 15th April 2006
Southern League Division One West
Bromsgrove Rovers 2 Stourport Swifts 1
by Phil Baker

It was questioned today and has been often repeated all season, why is the Bromsgrove Rovers team not as good as the sum of its components? There is no shortage of all the qualities needed for a winning combination skill, talent, ambition, strength, height, determination, aggression, pace, enthusiasm, etc. so why yet again were Rovers under-performing against a team that on paper were at the best half as good as the home side?

Excuses first. Another game on Monday so players with niggles or just tired needed a rest. Nothing left to play for in the league so little motivation there and the second leg of the errea Cup Final looming a week on Tuesday. Even so Rod Brown has told players they are playing not just for places in the final but also a place in the squad next season.

In the end they ran out winners thanks to a good effort from Mark Benbow two minutes into added time. Talk about leaving it late. However there were few in the ground who thought they deserved the win and many thought a draw would have bee a fairer result. For Stourport a point or three would have been useful in their fight against possible relegation.

There was a bit more spirit to the side that fell to Hemel last week but little evidence of the team that should have beaten Hitchin last Tuesday. Admittedly there were a number of team changes with Chris McHale and Steve Hillman replacing Phil Male and Exodus Geohaghan at the back. Wayne Dyer and Liam McDonald in midfield and Luke Reynolds preferred to Paul Moore up front.

Three ex-Rovers were in the visitors' line-up with Richard Burgess and Craig Pountney up front and Lee Williams patrolling the centre of mid-field.

There was little between the teams for the first twenty five minutes as both made a few useful incursions into each other's territory without really troubling the goalkeepers. Rovers should have scored on 24 minutes when Kevin Banner put over a useful cross that Neil Davis headed against the bar. However it was the Swifts who went in one-up at half-time when they took the lead on the 34 th minutes after Mark Hands found an unmarked Craig Pountney out on the right. He ran in quickly evading Lee Evans' attempted tackle and hit the ball into an empty net.

After half-time there was little action from either side and the Rovers' substitutions seemed to unsettle them even more with passes falling to meet their target and long balls sent aimlessly up-field which the Stourport defence had little trouble dealing with. Lee Williams appeared to have more of a grip in the centre of the park however Liam McDonald gave a good account of himself in the middle before being substituted.

Rovers got the equaliser via Kevin Banner's well stuck penalty in the 85 th minute after Daniel Hay had pulled Neil Davis back as he attempted a shot. Amazing how a goal can get a game going as this often dreary affair livened up for the last few minutes as both went for the kill. It was the home team who succeeded when deep into added time Kevin Banner hit over a precision cross to Mark Benbow whose powerful header gave Tony Breeden no chance.

Rovers (4-4-2): Lee Evans, Matt Johnson, Joe Williams, Wayne Dyer (Jimmy Smith 70 mins), Chris McHale, John Snape, Steve Hillman, Liam McDonald (Mark Benbow 70 mins), Neil Davis, Luke Reynolds (Delton Francis 64 mins), Kevin Banner
Subs not used: Riad Erraji, Tim Clarke

Stourport Swifts (4-4-2): Tony Breeden, Kyle Byrne, Adam Robinson, Lee Knight,
Daniel Hay, Craig Webb, Mark Hands, Shaun Findlay, Craig Poutney (Andrew Burgess 77 mins), Richard Burgess, Lee Williams
Subs not used: Stuart Rencher, Craig Jenkins, Troy Mailings

Attendance: 314
Referee: Mr I J Hamilton (Cheltenham)

Baker's MoM for Rovers: Kevin Banner