REDDITCH staged a gritty fightback but it proved in vain as visitors Solihull Blossomfield secured a 3-1 victory in the West Midlands Premier Division on Saturday.
The visitors provided a much sterner test than Redditch’s previous opponents West Bromwich and the home team were on the back foot from the start.
Blossomfield led 3-0 at the break despite a valiant performance from Redditch, who made a couple of tactical changes at half time.
The Kingfishers were determined to win the second half and they did so thanks to Richard Sellors’ goal before seeing a second ‘goal’ unfortunately disallowed, meaning Redditch finished the game the better team and can take a lot of positives into Saturday’s home match against Market Drayton.
REDDITCH 2nds bagged their first victory of the West Midlands Division Two season with a 3-1 success at Evesham.
A tactical change in formation focusing more on attacking hockey paid immediate dividends as Redditch took the lead within the first minute with a clinical finish from Adam Haslam.
Redditch continued pressurising for the majority of the first half, with Alan Povey settling well into a new role on the right of midfield and the forward three of Dawes, Price and Brad leading the line well, supported by Cook rotating between the striking roles.
Evesham drew level with their only shot on goal ten minutes into the second half but Redditch regained the momentum and a trademark short corner strike from Baker restored their lead before Dawes made it 3-1 late on.
This excellent performance bodes well for Redditch’s next match at home to Pershore on October 25.
WOODRUSH High School was the venue for a nine-goal thriller which saw visitors Redditch 3rds claim a 5-4 victory at Kings Heath Pickwick in West Midlands Division One.
With only a few minutes on the clock Redditch took the lead when Dave Pilkington burst into the attacking third and beat two Pilkington players to score from the top of the D.
After the restart Kings Heath came more into the game and had several attempts on the Redditch goal, but without success.
On 20 minutes the impressive Wayne Beard received the ball on the halfway line and made a decisive run before eventually drilling the ball home to make it 2-0 to Redditch.
However, this sparked the home team into life and the momentum was firmly with the hosts as they scored four unanswered goals to lead 4-2 at the break.
The second half began with some hard end-to-end action and unchanged Redditch were awarded a short corner that was pounced upon by Tim Gibbs who fired a sharp shot in off the post.
Once again the upper hand was now back with Redditch and an attack in numbers midway through the half led to a cross-shot from George Haslam which beat the keeper from close range.
With the game looking like ending all square, the winner arrived when an aerial pass by Beard to the lively Connor Adams was controlled instantly and Adams then combined with Gibbs before Adams smashed the ball into the corner of the net to maintain Redditch’s 100 per cent start to the season.
Redditch host Solihull Blossomfield on Saturday.
