Tipton Town 0, Halesowen Town 9

HALESOWEN began their pre-season campaign with an emphatic 9-0 victory again a young but competitive Tipton Town, writes Dave Hawley.

In manager John Hill’s absence, Matt Clarke chose to field a team comprising trialists, new signings Callum Wilson and Kyle Haynes as well as the majority of the team that ended last season.

The Yeltz were on the front foot straight from the off and within four minutes trialist Jordan Francis fired home to give Halesowen the lead following good work by Wilson.

Haines was proving to be a handful and on nine minutes whipped in a great ball from the right that the Tipton defence managed to scramble away.

However, the Tipton backline was broken again once more when on 17 minutes a great cross field ball was controlled by Haynes before powering into the box and cutting the ball back for trialist Ethan Delaney to finish.

Danny Bragoli was involved once more on 22 minutes, slotting the ball through to Malcolm Melvin who chipped the advancing Tipton keeper to make it 3-0.

Hales weren’t finished there and regained possession straight from the restart, a shot by Maradona was parried by the keeper, the ball looped up and he was on hand again to head the ball over the advancing keeper into the net to make it 4-0.

Within seconds of the restart the Tipton Town defence was penalised for a foul inside the box, Bragoli stepped up to despatch the penalty with ease to make the score 5-0.

A string of fine saves from the Tipton keeper kept the score at 5-0 with Bragoli hitting the post following a goalmouth scramble.

On 64 minutes, Daniel Platt was called into action for the first time as he held the ball comfortably from a Tipton cross, he quickly released the ball and following a flowing move the ball was slotted home to make it 6-0.

The threat to the Tipton goal was constant with the Yeltz makeshift backline barely threatened, indeed everytime Halesowen attacked they looked more likely to add to their tally, and, it was no surprise when on 82 minutes Luke Male scored a tap in from close range following some great work on the right.

Melvin then scored twice within 90 seconds to complete his hat-trick and make the final score a very comfortable 9-0 win.

The Yeltz now move on to their next pre-season friendly when they visit the Aspray Arena the home of Sporting Khalsa on Tuesday, July 19 (7.45pm).