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.