Neil nails former club (From Tewkesbury Admag)

Neil nails former club

Rushall Olympic 3, Stratford Tn 2

NEIL Kitching returned to haunt his old club with two goals in the opening 16 minutes that helped sentence Town to a second successive league defeat.

Poor defending again hampered Town's cause at a ground where they had won just once in 11 visits and debutant goalkeeper Chris Gibson was handed a tortuous bow.

Gibson came in for the injured Simon Owen, while former Redditch midfielder Craig Woodley replaced the sick Nick Heath.

Paddy Connelly shot wide from the edge of the box inside the first minute and then the midfielder saw his shot strike the inside of a post and rebound to safety.

Kitching gave Rushall the lead from their first attack when Woodley lost the ball in midfield and the ex-Masons Road front man, looking suspiciously offside, was allowed an unchallenged run on goal and he slotted the ball past the exposed and advancing Gibson.

It was 2-0 within three minutes when Kitching nodded in a free header from a free-kick.

Close-range efforts

Craig Pountney and Stuart Eades then both saw close-range efforts blocked on the line from the same corner situation before Kitching went close to completing his hat-trick only head straight at Gibson and then head over from a corner.

Dean Wellington's shot was almost sliced into his own net by a defender but, from the resulting corner kick, Ashley Pringle halved the arrears when snapping up his third goal in two games with a close-range header.

The hosts restored their two-goal lead eight minutes into the second half when more sloppy play at the back allowed Jason Lanns lash a 12-yard strike through the legs of Gibson after Pringle had missed his header and Nigel Niblett's attempted clearance fell at the Rushall player's feet.

Stratford were given a lifeline on the hour when Woodley was put through after good work from Phil Mortimer and Pountney the newcomer buried a shot into the the bottom corner.

Although Stratford had plenty of possession and produced some neat football they failed to create chances and their only other goal attempt of the half was a weak shot from Connelly that went wide with Pountney in a far better scoring position.

Gibson clawed out a Kitching cross-cum-shot from under the bar and when the two-goal man broke clear on six minutes from time Gibson saved well.

He then made another fine save to keep out Ben Porter's effort but he was stranded in stoppage-time when he was beaten by Nick Campbell's lob that hit the bar.

Town will be hoping to record a second league win of 2005 when they play host to Ludlow Town on Saturday.

However, the Shropshire strugglers' win over Stourbridge last weekend, means it won't be easy for Lennie Derby's men to inch further away from trouble.

P W D L F A Pts

Chasetown 25 18 3 4 58 24 57

Rushall Oly 24 15 5 4 49 28 50

Malvern 25 15 4 6 57 42 48

Quorn 24 13 7 4 44 26 46

Stourbridge 24 13 5 6 61 33 44

Oadby 25 12 5 8 41 35 41

Barwell 25 11 5 9 42 39 38

Loughboro 26 11 5 10 50 48 38

Coalville 21 10 6 5 31 16 36

Boldmere 25 10 6 9 47 45 36

Romulus 25 9 8 8 40 42 35

Racing Club 24 10 4 10 48 45 34

Westfields 24 9 7 8 34 34 34

Alvechurch 23 9 2 12 41 37 29

Biddulph 25 8 5 12 43 51 29

Stratford 24 9 2 13 36 44 29

Cradley 25 8 2 15 37 55 26

Oldbury* 23 7 6 10 34 40 24

Causeway 26 5 7 14 27 45 22

Studley 26 5 7 14 37 57 22

Ludlow 24 5 4 15 24 51 19

Bridgnorth 27 4 3 20 26 69 15

Southern League Division One West

P W D L F A Pts

Mangotsfield 26 15 5 6 55 35 50

Clevedon 25 15 1 9 53 31 46

Evesham 26 13 7 6 39 22 46

Yate Town 23 13 4 6 47 23 43

Bromsgrove 23 12 7 4 38 23 43

Rothwell 24 12 6 6 37 27 42

Brackley 24 11 7 6 42 27 40

Paulton 24 11 5 8 38 34 38

Taunton 24 10 6 8 41 38 36

Ashford 22 10 5 7 34 25 35

Corby Town 25 9 7 9 31 38 34

Marlow 25 8 9 8 42 42 33

Stourport 25 9 3 13 30 37 30

Oxford City 25 8 5 12 31 40 29

Cinderford 22 8 4 10 30 34 28

Thame Utd 22 8 4 10 25 34 28

Burnham 25 8 3 14 37 49 27

Swindon S 26 5 10 11 24 36 25

Bedworth 24 6 6 12 22 39 24

Bracknell 26 6 5 15 31 53 23

Sutton Cold* 24 9 4 11 27 38 20

Egham 20 1 3 16 12 50 6

*Points deducted.