Stone Old Alleynians couldn’t make it two wins in a row as they lost at home to Cradley Town on Tuesday night.
The Old Boys were hoping to carry on from where they left off last Saturday against Gornal Athletic when they won their first game of this Premier League season. But within five minutes of the kick-off, Cradley had scored their first goal after overwhelming the Old Boys in the early stages of the game. Their centre forward was put through on goal after some quick inter-passing and he slotted home easily to put them in front.
Alleynians were finding the pace and power of the opposition very difficult to cope with but Ollie Davies and Ian Whalley stuck manfully to their tasks trying to stem the tide of attacks. However, with only 10 minutes gone, Cradley went two up when another well worked passing move put their No. 8 in a position to head past the resilient Old Boys’ keeper Atilla Zirekoglu.
The home team did start to get a little bit more into the game at this point as Cradley took their foot off the gas and Grant Bigham nearly scored after a barnstorming run down the right wing led to his shot being scrambled off the line by the Cradley defence after the goalkeeper had been beaten on his near post.
Half Time:- Stone Old Alleynians 0 – 2 Cradley Town
After some choice words and advice from the management duo of Matt Smith and Bob Askey, the Old Alleynians came out prepared to do battle with their opponents and attempt to reduce the deficit.
Skipper Paul Griffiths led by example working hard throughout and firing a few shots in at the Cradley goal. Matt Bradbury and Billy Thorley worked very hard to retain the ball in the Alleynians attack, but with Cradley continuing to have the majority of the possession it was difficult to create any worthwhile chances.
The introduction of big Carl Dibden, bearded Ben Lewis and Adam Heath from the subs bench did seem to give the team a little bit more impetus going forward and bit by bit the hosts started to have more of a share of the ball. With 10 minutes to go, Alleynes won a corner on the right which the Cradley defence failed to deal with. In an almighty scramble on the line, Danny Heard successfully poked the ball home to put the Old Boys back in the game.
The home team threw everything into attack and Cradley were just a shadow of the side that had dominated possession throughout the game. With Ollie Davis and Luke Askey joining the attack and Bigham and Taylor pushed up onto the wings from fullback it looked like the Old Boys might be able to turn it round in the last few minutes. A dribble through the Cradley defence by Lewis looked like it would bring the equaliser but sadly his shot was saved easily by the Cradley keeper.
Full Time:- Stone Old Alleynians 1 – 2 Cradley Town
[box type=”info” align=”aligncenter” ]Team: Zirekoglu, Bigham, Whalley, Davies, Taylor, Griffiths, Askey, Heard, Tomkinson, Bradbury, Thorley. Subs: Lewis (Bradbury), Dibden (Thorley), Heath (Griffiths)[/box]
