Report submitted by Tividale FC

TIVIDALE knew that after their defeat at Wednesfield last time out an improved performance would be required against a Bilston side that were on a 5 league game unbeaten run.

With Curtis Cocking unavailable, new signing Lee Smith was given his Tividale debut in the middle of the park and after 23 minutes he must have wondered if the decision to move from Cradley Town was the right one as the home side raced into a two goal lead in what was the start of an eventful 90 plus minutes.

The first piece of action and talking point came in the 7th minute. When the ball hit Bilston full back Shaq Reid on the arm from about two yards away. The ruling that it was deliberate from referee Jon Hodgson seemed very harsh considering the short distance the ball travelled, but to compound that with giving a free kick outside the box when Reid had to have been at least two yards inside the box. In the end the free kick came to nothing.

On 13 minutes Bilston were ahead with their first effort on goal. The home side won two corners in quick succession and the second one was cleared only to the edge of the box and a crisp strike from Kartel O'Neil-Martin went through a group of players and into the back of Ryan Cheshire's net.

On 23 minutes Bilston doubled their lead. Although Tividale did not help themselves with some poor defending prior to a Bilston player going over in the box after minimal contact. O'Neil-Martin made no mistake from the spot sending Cheshire the wrong way.

Tividale were back in the game 3 minutes later when Joe Lawley put through Demetri Brown and some hesitation from Bilston keeper Victor Pinheiro allowed the Tividale frontman to round him and side foot home. Tividale were now in the ascendancy and on 29 minutes had a great chance to level the scores.

From a Lawley corner Tyree Street's header was cleared off the line and Freddie Watts follow up header was saved by Pinheiro. On the half hour Brown was through again but this time Pinheiro was quickly out to him and blocked his shot.

On the stroke of half time some tremendous defending from Watts prevented Bilston from regaining their two goal advantage when he quickly got across and in front of Bilston's Mame Mor Ndiaye to clear just as the frontman was about to tap home a cross from Taimoor Hussain.

Half Time: Bilston Town CFC 2 - 1 Tividale

Bilston started the second half as they ended the first with pressure on the Tividale back line and on 61 minutes the game was turned on it's head.

Tividale defender Dan Bryson got the wrong side of Mor Ndiaye and in his effort to get back at his man he looked for all the world to have brought him down in the box. This would have resulted in Tividale down to ten men as Bryson was the last man and conceding a penalty that may have put them 3-1 down. But the referee to the surprise of just about everyone in the ground waived play on and awarded Tividale a goal kick.

Tividale had no hesitation in cashing in on their seemingly good fortune and were level on 68 minutes. After some great work by Tividale substitute Dan Smith, he then played in Brown and he hammered the ball past Pinheiro and into the net. Three minutes later Brown put Tividale ahead and completed his hat trick when he pounced on a mistake by Bilston defender Todd Perry and he finished with a clinical strike past Pinheiro.

On 78 minutes Tividale sealed the points when Brown was brought down by the hapless Pinheiro and Lawley gave the visitors a two goal advantage from the resulting spot kick. That was just about the last piece of action for Lawley who shortly after was given a second yellow card for a mistimed challenge.

In the end it was a workmanlike performance against a much improved Bilston side to the one that Tividale that faced earlier in the season and Tividale have to be given credit for the character shown in coming back from two goals down even though they may have had a little help at a vital time in the game.

Full Time: Bilston Town CFC  2 - 4 Tividale

Tividale: 1. Ryan Cheshire, 2. Tom Hurdman, 3. Darragh Bustin, 4. Karl Gardner, 5. Freddie Watts 6. Dan Bryson, 7. Lee Smith, 8. Liam Wilkinson (17. TJ Munthali 85), 9. Tyree Street (12. Dan Smith 58), 10. Demetri Brown (14. Chris Bladen 84), 11. Joe Lawley

Unused Sub: 15. Elliott Hartley, 16. Nathan Jones.