Bards ramp up pre-season with Birmingham City victory
STRATFORD Town capped an impressive week by claiming a second scalp in midweek – beating Birmingham City’s u23s 3-0 just days after they edged out Coventry City’s youngsters 2-1.
The Bards made a dream start, scoring twice inside the opening seven minutes as they exploited their opponents lack of height at set-pieces.
There had already been one close call for the visitors when the solitary trialist in Stratford’s starting line-up hit a free-kick that skimmed off the wall and behind for a corner. And it was from this flag kick that Town made the breakthrough. Tom Solanke’s kick was not dealt with by the Blues defence and Jamie Molyneux was on hand to stab the ball home from close range.
Five minutes later, the Bards doubled their lead from another corner, directed to the far side of the area when Liam Daly rose unchallenged to head beyond keeper Oliver Basey.
Rico Patterson put a shot just over for the visitors soon after but it was the home side who continued to dominate the chances. A fumble by the keeper from another Daly header had to be cleared by his defence before a great passing move involving Dan Lafferty and Callum Ebanks finished with Solanki forcing Basey into a save.
The pressure finally told four minutes before the break when the trialist broke down the left and rolled the ball into the area when Ebanks crashed his shot into the roof of the net.
Morgan Dance drilled a shot just wide for Blues at the end of the half and Molyneux sent an acrobatic effort against the bar early in the second period but as the number of substitutions increased, the number of chances diminished.
City substitute Romelle Donovan was a lively addition and had an effort fly just wide while fellow replacement Junior Dixon had a low shot gathered by substitute keeper Louis Beresford.
Then, in the final minute, Riley O’Sullivan nearly added a fourth for the hosts with a powerful drive which was deflected just wide of the target.
Against Coventry, goals from Lafferty and O’Sullivan wrapped up a 2-1 win with the latter netting the well-struck winner five minutes from time.
