Saturday 18th March 2006
Southern League Division One West
Bromsgrove Rovers 1 Taunton Town 2
by Phil Baker

Another match, another tired and uninspired performance and Rovers crash to their eighth home league defeat of the season. It now means they have lost more at home than they have won, a mere 17 points from 15 matches since the start of 2006 and staring in the face their worst season since the Bannisters were ousted from the club.

No Rod Brown in the dugout so it is assumed the line up was decided at Thursday's training session and nobody could argue with sending out the same team that beat Chippenham and strolled past Thame last week.

However, what we saw was a return to the bad old days of being unable to play against teams who mark tightly and hassle resulting in constant giving away of the ball and inability to create enough opportunities so that at least a fraction could be converted.

Much of the action for the first 20 minutes was in the rather crowded middle of the pitch with both teams unable to get a decent ball through to their forwards, though Mark Benbow should have done better than fire over the bar on seven minutes and at the other end the ever dangerous Aaron Blakemore failed to get enough power behind a couple of attempts to worry the back of Lee Evans' net.

Taunton realised their best chance of success was by attacking in numbers when in a good position and that paid off on the 21 st minute when Evans failed to hold on to a cross and after a brief scramble the ball fell to Runako Mowatt just a couple of yards out who had no trouble blasting home. Evans claimed he had been fouled and despite John Snape's attempt to calm him down he managed to talk himself into the ref's notebook.

The equaliser always looked to be well within Rovers grasp especially as Neil Davis was running around well and getting himself into good positions. It duly came courtesy of Davis on 36 minutes when he received the ball just past the Taunton right-hand post and with no other option available turned 180 degrees and fired home into the top left hand corner.

Playing downhill and seeking a little inspiration from the goal, Rovers did attempt to gain the lead when Davis hit the bar with a good effort but with the home mid-field unable to find much of a way past the Taunton back four and Neil Davis virtually playing the lone striker, a one-all scoreline was a fair reflection on the first half.

Liam McDonald made his debut in a green and white shirt just over 20 minutes into the second half and showed a few deft touches though his style of play looked more like Wayne Dyer than the combative Mark Benbow whom he replaced. Indeed it was Benbow's linking up with Neil Davis that nearly gave Rovers the lead on a couple of occasions.

However it was the visitors who took an impassable lead on seventy minutes when a superbly taken free-kick by Charlie Walsh went through the Rovers' wall into the top left-hand corner giving Evans no chance.

Delton Francis replaced Paul Moore just after the goal in the hope that he could trouble Taunton's defence into yielding at least an equaliser but the visitors managed to defend their slim lead and chalked up a deserved if not particularly impressive win.

Rovers were left licking their wounds after failing to take the points against a team they had beaten on the previous seven occasions. Defensively they were not that bad with Exodus Geohaghan reading the game well but it was the players in front of him who could have had better games.

With nothing to play for most fans were hoping for some neat and entertaining football but on the basis of today's display several players looked as if the end of a frustrating season cannot come quick enough. Let’s just hope that they can invigorate themselves and gain a respectable league position and more importantly see off Hitchin Town in the errea Cup Final.

Rovers (3-5-2): Lee Evans, Jimmy Smith, Joe Williams, John Snape (Steve Hillman 77 mins), Exodus Geohaghan, Riad Erraji, Mark Benbow (Liam McDonald 66 mins),
Wayne Dyer, Neil Davis, Paul Moore (Delton Francis 71 mins), Kevin Banner
Subs not used: Matt Johnson, Tim Clarke

Taunton Town (4-4-2): Tom Buckler, Ben Wiltshire, Charlie Walsh, Gary Fisher, Adam Faux, Sam Jones, Aaron Blakemore, Runako Mowatt (Chris Kite 80 mins), Ryan Havard,
Sam Duggan, Loris Ghiglia (Stuart Walford 77 mins)
Sub not used; Alexis Piper

Attendance: 319
Referee: Mr N Radford (Worcester)