St Martins 4 Darlaston Town 1

Shawn Melusi put the hosts in the driving seat with a goal on 9 minutes, but that was cancelled out on the hour when substitute Chev Gordon (Pictured) found the back of the net after back heading a Lucas Hough free kick past Daniel Wood.

SATURDAY 22ND APRIL 2017
ST MARTINS 4 DARLASTON TOWN (1874) 1

Darlaston returned home from their long trip to Oswestry pointless in this end of season encounter.

Caretaker manager Scott Bamford gave 16 year old Adonijah Allen his full debut and brought in Sam Baxter and Tangeni Nghishidimbwa following injury.

The home side opened brightly and took the lead on 9 minutes, Shawn Melusi found space and burst into the penalty area to shoot home off the post from 12 yards. Former FC Oswestry Town player Melusi was causing the visitors defence all sorts of problems but some magnificent defending by skipper Lucas Hough kept the scoreline intact. Allen broke down the right wing on 19 minutes but his cross evaded Sam Melia and Nghishidimbwa with the home defenders nowhere.

Melusi blazed a 25 yard free kick over the bar and minutes later the outstretched leg of keeper Aaron Morris denied Melusi again. Darlaston responded with Melia exchanging passes with Allen but the visitor’s top score could not get his shot off under pressure from two home defenders.

Darlaston opened the second half well and grabbed an equaliser on the hour mark when substitute Chev Gordon found the back of the net with a glancing header from a Lucas Hough free kick.

The game turned upside down on 68 minutes when Darlaston full back Jay Handley conceded a soft penalty when he was judged to have fouled Melusi in the box and the inform striker stepped up to take the resulting spot kick sending keeper Morris the wrong way.

Just four minutes later Darlaston were reduced to ten men when Handley received his marching orders following a straight red issued for another foul on Melusi just outside the area. The sending off gave the home side the momentum to push forward and they did so with relish as Melusi continued to give the hard pressed visiting defence a torrid time. Melusi recorded his hat trick on 90 minutes strolling past 2 defenders before calmly slotting home from 6 yards.

The Saints then proceeded with a double substitution with Henry Dawson and Dominik Brown replacing Dave Hartshorne and Tom Ash, with Dawson firing home the club's fourth goal of the afternoon in the fourth minute of stoppage time.

Following the game caretaker boss Bamford reflected- "I have mixed emotions following the game. For the opening 10 minutes we were a shambles and paid a big price conceding in the 9th minute. After that we had chances to equalise but our final ball was not good enough. Melusi ran the game for them and was a handful for 90 minutes. I thought we played well for 70 minutes but the penalty decision was very harsh and changed the course of the game. We pushed on to try and get something from the game and got caught twice in added time.