Halesowen Town 1, Rushall Olympic 1

HALESOWEN made the short journey home with a vital point after an improved performance against Rushall Olympic ended as a 1-1 draw, writes Reece Chalton.

The Yeltz opened the scoring on 12 minutes, as Chris Lait bursted with pace down the right wing and into the penalty area, before hitting a cross towards the penalty spot, allowing Elliott Turner to jump up and header the ball into the net.

Halesowen dominated the first half, as Lait hit a shot over the bar, and Thompson-Brown blasted the ball over the bar.

Rushall tried to get the equaliser, as Nathan Rooney's powerful shot flew towards goal, but a brilliant acrobatic save from Matt Sargeant preserved the vistors' lead.

But it took five minutes of the second half for Olympic to equalise, as Rooney took the ball from the halfway line, skipped past three defenders and then topped it off by slotting the ball into the bottom right hand corner.

Halesowen nearly took their lead back instantly, as Tom Tonks hit a low cross into the box, and Robert Thompson-Brown could only slightly touch the ball and it continued rolling across the box.

The Yeltz could have stole all 3 points right at the death, as 3 straight corners resulted in constant pinballing in Olympics penalty area, but it came to nothing as the referee blew his whistle and allowed Halesowen take a valuable point back to the heart of the Black Country.