British Gas Business League Division One Midland
Saturday 4th November 2006 - 3:00 p.m. kick-off
Bromsgrove Rovers 1 Cinderford Town 7
By Phil Baker

Another week and another bizarre match involving Bromsgrove Rovers. It certainly isn't boring being a Greens' fan these days. But is this the most ludicrous scoreline in the history of the club? How can a team top of the league that have not lost a league match to date go down 7-1 at home to another that had only managed 19 goals in 10 games? To quote a fan going out the gates at the end, "Even crap teams don't lose by that margin".

Let's get the excuses in first. Rovers were playing into a strong low sun in the first half; rumour has it that the defenders had a lot of trouble seeing the ball. Cinderford were well-organised and though not particularly mobile at the back, every time a Rovers player found himself in their half, he was quickly surrounded by red shirts, contrast that to the other end of the pitch where Cinderford forwards found acres of space which along with their pace gave them an advantage and certainly contributed to more than one of their goals.

So where do we start? For the visitors the proceedings started with Carl Heeley and Chris Taylor getting into a dreadful mix up, Matty Williams did not need second invitation to knock in the resulting loose ball. . The same striker could have got a second five minutes later when Taylor this time fumbled a back header from the same defender but recovered before Williams got a chance.

Rovers then rallied with Liam McDonald firing a good shot just over from 25 yards and Nathan Lamey hit the bar on 23 minutes. But it was Cinderford who doubled their lead five minutes later when Richard Kear side stepped Chris McHale and fired wide of Chris Taylor's outstretched right arm. Just to confirm their superiority they added a third on 38 minutes when Kear stretched the back line and passed to Nathan Jukes who has the easiest of shots into the top right hand corner.

Never mind we all said at half-time, we have recovered from being three down before so we can do it again, and when Neil Davis slotted past Lewis Skyers on 56 minutes from a Liam McDonald flick on, we thought this was on. How wrong we were. Cinderford took only two minutes to re-gain their advantage when Jamie Hammonds beat Taylor with a low shot having had the luxury of virtually no defence to worry about.

Player-manager Chris Burns, well know to Rovers from his time as manager at Gloucester City, now had a beam across his face instead of the usual scowl and this got bigger another two minutes later when he headed in the fifth from a free-kick.

Again Rovers rallied, points were now impossible but at least an attempt was needed to make the score look a little more respectable. Davis provided Nathan Lamey with a good cross but the resulting shot went wide and Gary Hay should have done better than ballooning a shot just after.

By now morale and energy in the Rovers' defence was a rock bottom so when Greg Lewis easily headed in Chris Burns' cross, that was no surprise. The rout was completed with just two minutes to go when substitute Ben Gascoyne who had only been on the pitch for a minute ran straight through the defence giving Taylor no chance for Cinderford's seventh.

Never has there been so much relief from the home fans or at least the few left in the ground when Mr Adcock finally blew his whistle.

A freak result? Definitely, but the visitors deserved their win. They were superior in all departments and importantly looked solid at the back, fast at the front and imaginative in mid-field. Rovers defence had a shocker and that is a problem in itself as they were frequently stretched. Either the wingers/wing-backs need to help out more in defence or we revert to four at the back.  Finally poor Chris Taylor who had the ignominy of having to retrieve the ball from the net. To be fair all the goals were well taken and he did not stand much of a chance with any of them but even at this level you would expect a goalkepeer to make two or three class saves when the defence was under pressure; he did not mange that today.

Over to you Rod to re-motivate your charges for the visit to the basement club Berkhamsted next week.

Rovers: Chris Taylor, James Smith (Paul Lloyd 75 mins), Scott Stamps, Chris McHale,
Carl Heeley (Joe Williams 60 mins), John Snape, Stuart Skidmore, Wayne Dyer (Gary Hay 56 mins), Daire Doyle, Neil Davis, Nathan Lamey, Liam McDonald.
Subs not used: Mark Taylor, Daire Doyle.

Cinderford: Lewis Skyers, Will Steadman, Luke Butterley, Neil Griffiths (capt.), Greg Lewis, Marc Burrow, Nathan Jukes, Chris Burns (Craig Tait 88 mins), Matty Williams, Richard Kear (Daryl Addis 83 mins), Jamie Hammonds (Ben Gascoyne 87 mins).
Sub not used: Keith Knight.

Scorers: Rovers - Neil Davis (56 mins).
Cinderford - Williams (9 mins), Kear (28 mins), Jukes (38 mins), Hammonds (58 mins), Burns (60 mins), Griffiths (77 mins), Gascoyne (88 mins)

Yellows: Rovers - Snape, Stamps; Robins - Griffiths
Attendance: 490

Referee: Mr J G Adcock (Long Eaton)
Baker's MoM for Rovers: Neil Davis