Proper Football: Glassboys shattered.

Saturday 14 December 2013

Glassboys shattered.

Calor League Southern
Stourbridge v Arlesey Town

The Glassboys returned to league action following their recent FA Cup elimination at Stevenage and their Birmingham Senior Cup win over Wolves. Their opponents featured ex-league player Barry Hayles who proved the old adage still rings true about the skill being the last thing to go. From the off, Hayles proved extremely adept at holding up the ball. He was more than ably assisted by his younger co-striker N'Guessan whose movement off the ball was impressive. Stourbridge seemed to be having somewhat of an 'off-day' with passes going astray and many players not coping too well with a sticky pitch while Arlesey adapted well to the conditions, being quicker to the ball and looking very well organised in defence and midfield. As the half wore on so the visitors increased in confidence and it was no surprise when N'Guessan rounded the home keeper to put them in front, this following a couple of near misses. This seemed to spur the home side and they could and maybe should have been level by half-time. Credit to the visiting keeper.

Half-time Stourbridge 0 Arlesey Town 1

Whatever Gary Hackett said during the interval had an immediate effect on the hosts as they tore into the visitors from the off,closing them down and disrupting their impressive passing game. Plenty of goal-mouth scrambles resulted in nothing for Stourbridge and with Arlesey gradually weathering the storm,they went in search of the killer goal which duly came late on via Hatch.

As already stated Hayles and N'Guessan stood out for the visitors but,take nothing away from Arlesey, this was without doubt an outstanding team performance. Luke Benbow starred for Stourbridge with his limitless energy and running but the hosts were beaten by the better team on the day.