British Gas Business League Division One Midland
Monday 1st January 2007 - 3:00 p.m. kick-off
Bromsgrove Rovers 5 Bedworth United 2
By Phil Baker

A deserved and comfortable win for Rovers for a match played in difficult conditions. As with Solihull, the game played well on a wet and heavy pitch for the first half but as the rain got heavier so the ability to play good football waned. Fortunately the weather eased for much of the second half to allow the match to just about finish.

Rovers pretty well dominated proceedings for the whole 90 minutes and gave notice of their intentions to take all three points when James Smith got the final touch on 6 minutes after a goalmouth scramble.

Stuart Skidmore hit the post just five minutes later from a Liam McDonald cross but the second was not long coming when on 18 minutes, a fortunate deflection ran in the path of Nathan Lamey, he passed well to Gary Hay who avoided the offside trap and put a fine angled shot past Craig Johnson.

Bedworth though were not finished, and on 30 minutes Adam Kinder found himself unmarked just inside the box on 30 minutes and had a relatively easy tap in past James Coates. Six minutes later they were level when Jae Martin converted a penalty after Gill was alleged to have handled. However Rovers regained the lead just two minutes after that also with a penalty for what appeared to be a hand ball by James Holmes. Nathan Lamey did the honours.

It took the home side just 20 seconds to increase their lead in the second half when Paul Lloyd hit a good pass to Liam McDonald; he then hit the ball down the left side of the pitch to Nathan Lamey who fired home from a narrow angle.

Conditions at this point were particularly poor especially in the middle of the pitch giving rise to a numbers of errors and passes running short by both teams. Rovers seemed to be coping better and could have put the game well beyond Bedworth's reach on 65 minutes when they were awarded another penalty, however on this occasion Craig Johnson guessed right and dived well to his left to save Nathan Lamey effort. This though did not satisfy a number of Greenback players who continued arguing with both referee and linesman. Richard Kavangh was adjudged to be the worst offender and received a straight red card for his trouble.

Bedworth pressed hard despite the difficult pitch and a man short but Rovers appeared to be happy with a two-goal cushion and relying on occasional breaks. This tactic paid dividends just after the 90 minute mark when Rapinder Gill again showing his pace raced out of defence, passed upfield to Hay, he in turn passed to Lamey who hit an unstoppable shot past 'keeper Johnson.

Given the lack of choice for the Rovers' management with so many players missing, this was a good result against a team known to be a banana skin for Bromsgrove.

Rovers: James Coates, James Smith, Rapinder Gill, Chris McHale, Carl Heeley (capt), Stuart Skidmore, Liam McDonald (John Snape 54 mins), Danny Scheppell, Nathan Lamey, Gary Hay, Paul Lloyd.
Sub not used: Scott Stamps.

Bedworth: Craig Johnson, Tom Starkey, James Holmes, Richard Kavanagh, Liam O'Neill (Luke Baker 77 mins), Alton Rennalls, Paul Spacey, Michael Feeley, Adam Kinder, Jae Martin (capt, David Sheward 83 mins)), Jamie Williams (Martin Crawford 63 mins).
Subs not used: Daniel Harris, Andrew Kemp

Scorers: Rovers - Smith (6 mins), Lamey (38 (pen), 46, 90+1 mins), Hay (18 mins)
Bedworth - Kinder (30 mins), Martin (36 mins - pen)

Yellows: Bedworth - Spacey
Reds: Bedworth - Kavanagh

Attendance: 424
Referee: Mr l Blackwood (Walsall).

Baker's MoM for Rovers: Gary Hay