Bewdley Town 6 Lichfield City 4

Tuesday, 18th Oct 2022

Lichfield City have suffered a defeat against Bewdley Town in an extraordinary game which ended 6-4 to the hosts after some poor defending from Lichfield cost them and also some questionable decisions from the officials.

Lichfield began the first half the better of the two sides, the passing was faster and the purpose was there especially with new man Jaden Forrester leading the line. The new signing from Rushall Olympic looked sharp from the outset.

But it was Bewdley who capitalised, when poor defending on two occasions led to two goals relatively close together. Charlie Foley did very well to convert from a corner on the right, leaving Ivor Green to shake his head in frustration.

A bad start turned into a disastrous one, a free-kick from the halfway line was headed down, Lichfield’s defenders seemed to switch off and there was Dylan Hart to finish past Beeson, with a depleted squad through injuries the game looked beyond them.

However, the depleted squad had different ideas. A simple long kick from Beeson was flicked on well by Jack Edwards and Luke Childs was in, he did brilliantly to create the space and he finished superbly into the corner past Joe Stockton in the Bewdley goal.

Immediately after Childs reduced the arrears it nearly increased again. After a corner caused problems for Lichfield, Callum Gillies tried an audacious chip over the out-of-position Beeson and the effort clipped the crossbar much to the visitor’s relief.

The hectic game showed no signs of letting up when Jack Edwards picked the ball up 35 yards from goal and drove with the ball at his feet with purpose, his drilled shot left Stockton with no chance, bringing the scores level in a frantic first half.

The second half similar to the first didn’t start well for Lichfield when a foul from Jamie Elkes in the penalty box led to Hartley comfortably beating Beeson from the spot to make it 3-2, 10 minutes into the second half.

Barely 10 minutes after the hosts took the lead, Lichfield responded emphatically. Another long ball caused problems for the Bewdley defence, the ball bounced awkwardly for the defence and landed on the feet of Childs again who finished calmly to draw the Staffordshire side level.

Bewdley retook the lead from a Lichfield corner, after some more terrible defending.

A clearance from the hosts found Hartley he released Kyonn Evans down the left-hand side and he finished well into the bottom right-hand corner to give the hosts the lead again.

Lichfield thought they made it 4-4 when a shot from a corner looked to have crossed the line but the linesman didn’t flag for the goal despite it looking over the line.

As a result, Edwards and Joe Haines were sin-binned for 10 minutes just to sum up the bizarre nature of the affair.

Bewdley wrapped it up and made it 5-3 with minutes to play. A tap-in by Evans again after a saved shot by Beeson looked to have sealed the win.

Luke Childs won a penalty with minutes to play after a tangle of legs in the box, Luke Keen rolled the ball past the goalkeeper to make it 5-4.

Dylan Hartley completed his hattrick with minutes to play, a ball over the top to Hartley he had the keeper to beat and finished past Beeson into the near post to make it 6-4.

Written by Shaun Webbley - https://lichfieldcityfc.wordpress.com/

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