Darlaston 1 Bromyard Town 0

Darlaston opened their winning account for the season with a 1-0 score line which slightly flattered the visitors. Following a stuttering start to the season player /manager Mark Swann was eager to get back to winning ways WRITES NEIL CHAMBERS and recalled himself to the line up.

The home side opened brightly and had the better of the opening exchanges with Craig Ball and Lucas Hough dominating midfield. Bromyard eased their way into the game but neither side created any clear cut chances until the 20th minute when Hayden Hughes and Sam Melia combined, Melia bringing our a smart save from visiting keeper Alex Rhodes. Jo Maffei and Ryan Glenister were impressive for the visitors but they could not breach a solid home defence.

As the half progressed Darlaston mounted intense pressure on the Bromyard defence but simply could not make the breakthrough although they though they had done so in the 28th minute. Martin Stanton laid the ball off to the overlapping full back Kieron Parsons who sent in a superb cross or Sam Melia to hook home from 3 yards but unfortunately for the large home crowd the over zealous referee blew for a foul on Parsons, and disallowed a perfectly good goal. The resulting free kick came to nothing.

The second half was a more competitive affair with the Bromyard forwards, Sam Cupper and Macauley Finch looking more threatening. A Darlaston corner in the 57th minute saw Swann head just wide and two minutes later the same player could not connect properly to a Lucas Hough corner ,heading wide from 3 yards.

Darlaston were now generally on top and took the lead in the 65th minute with the best move of the game resulting in Sam Melia's 5th goal in five games. Sam Giles and Lucas Hough combining superbly down the left, Hough breezed past hiss marker to send in a near post cross which was converted by Melia, shrugging off a defender to turn the ball home from 6 yards beyond keeper Rhodes.

Bromyard responded and had their best period of the game . They should have capitalised on a stray pass by Justin on 70 minutes but fortunately Glenisters 20 yard shot went wide of Morris' left hand post.

Chances were few and far between, Darlaston holding out for a deserved win to take them into 11th position.

Following the game player boss Mark Swann reflected " I cannot quite put my finger on it but we are not firing on all four cylinders. Today was typical of our season to date, we played really well in spells but we also gave the ball away far too easily and we simply could not get going. Bromyard worked really hard and a single goal lead at this level is never comfortable. As always it is good to get the firsy win under our belt and I hope this will give us some confidence and kick start our season".

This Saturday (10 September) Darlaston travel to Wyrley FC for a West Midlands league Division One fixture KO 3.00pm.