Match Report

St Ives Town v Stourbridge

Pitching-In Southern League Premier Central  18-03-2023

Those that saw the preceding game between these same two sides only seven days earlier will find this scoreline hard to believe. Ives were the better side and came within seconds of claiming all three points at War Memorial Athletic Ground but just one week later on their own patch they were a very poor second best and this score does not flatter the visitors who simply blew away a very flat and uninspiring home side.

Some analysis of the Glassboys away record may give a little more of a clue to why this game went the way that it did as they boast the best record on the road of any side outside the top five. But that record can give no excuse for the error strewn performance from the hosts which started as early as the third minute when they gifted their visitors the lead. A short goal kick from James Goff was worked around inside Ives box until a fateful slip from the usually so reliable Jordan Williams allowed the speedy Jason Cowley to nick the ball and slot it home.

Falling behind so early clearly rocked the Ives fragile confidence but to give them their due they battled back and went close to levelling three times inside the next five minutes. A 5^th minute Johnny Herd corner from the left picked out Jonny Edwards in space beyond the far post but his attempted knock back into the danger zone was comfortably claimed by keeper Charlie Price. Four minutes later another Herd cross from the left was more successfully headed back into the mix by Michael Richens and Kieran Higgs bursting onto the loose ball looked like he must score only for Joe Hull to bravely hurl himself across the line of the shot at point blank range to deny him. Herd’s resulting corner found the head of the unmarked Ashton Fox arriving in the centre of goal six yards out. But the young centre back failed to get over his header and the guilt edged chance was gone. 

Ives continued to work hard to get back on terms, but their endeavour lacked end product and despite winning more corners they struggled to offer any real further threat on Price’s goal. A 33^rd minute Herd long throw offered them an opportunity to perhaps find a route through but instead it acted as their undoing as Williams was again the man who lost possession, but this time inside the opposition box!. The ball was quickly fed forward and the fastest man on the pitch Obinna Anaebonam somehow found himself in a foot race from the half way line with Paddy Casey. There was only going to be one winner and the speedy Glassboys winger also showed his composure as he kept his cool to slot past the exposed Goff and double the visitor’s advantage.

With half time approaching Ives were desperate to find themselves a toe hold into the game and Edwards had a fierce shot from the corner of the box deflected wide in 42^nd minute. There had been quite a few stoppages in the first period and the board had gone up for an added six minutes. In the fourth of those added six the hosts did find that toe hold courtesy of Ed Hottor who fired home from edge of the box after Herd’s long throw had been half cleared to him.

Now back in the game Ives just had to see it through to half time to give themselves a fighting chance in the second half. But they instantly self destructed again as Williams was turned inside out by the tricky Cowley on the edge of the box and then taken down clumsily by Goff inside the box as the keeper tried to knock the ball away from him in an unorthodox style with his legs. Anaebonam stepped up to send the keeper the wrong way from the spot and restore the visitors two goal advantage at the break.

Conceding the third goal so late in the first half meant any possible lift that Ives may have got from scoring themselves had been extinguished and there was no real build up of pressure on Price’s goal early in the second period. It was the visitors who carved out the first noteworthy opportunity after the re-start on the hour as a quick exchange of passes through the centre of Ives back line ended with Cowley being put clear by Darryl Knights, but the Glassboy’s number nine was denied his second of the day by an assistant’s upraised flag.

Ives continued to work hard, but they still could not offer any real threat on Price’s goal, although half chances did come and go. A deep 65^th minute cross from Luke Harris picked out Richens beyond the far post, but rather than try and direct his header into the feet of players arriving in the centre he tried to go for goal from an impossible angle and failed to hit the target. The Ives skipper did even worse with a thirty yard free kick eight minutes later as his attempt to get up and down over the visitors three man wall just kept on going up!. The free kick had been well won as substitute Nabil Shariff jinked his way clear through the centre only to be unceremoniously taken down by Joe Hull in what originally looked like a promising position.

The host’s final opportunity to make it an interesting last fifteen minutes then came and went in 75^th minute. Substitute winger Greg Kaziboni raced away wide right but was effectively stopped by Hull sliding in to block his attempted cross. The resulting Herd corner from the right was flapped at by keeper Price giving the usually deadly Shariff chance to direct his header from six yards on target. But the flying keeper had done just enough to put off the striker who, like Fox before him, flashed his header over the crossbar.

That proved to be Ives final opportunity because the Glassboys dynamic duo up front combined to grab another goal each in a three minute spell with about ten to go. Anaebonam completed his hattrick in 79^th minute as he got fed through by Cowley to, once more, coolly beat Goff from close range. The goal came at the end of another lightning fast break by the visitors.

The pattern was repeated in 82^nd minute as for the umpteenth time the Glassboys broke at pace. This time it was substitute Callum Gittings who got away down the right before cutting inside and clipping a ball into the centre where Ives centre backs and keeper had all gone AWOL leaving Cowley with the simple task of heading home from close range to complete his brace and put the final nail in Ives coffin.

The result, their eighth game without a win, leaves Ives now teetering on the brink of falling into the bottom four and with their next three games all against teams in the top four things are beginning to look very ominous. A return to early season form is urgently required now to get them out of the mire and a positive return from at least one of those very tough next three games is essential. It can be done, as relegation rivals Needham Market proved by winning at league leaders Tamworth today but to achieve it everyone has to pull together and all believe!.

Final Score:  St Ives Town  1  Stourbridge 5       

Goals: 

ST IVES: Hottor 45+4

STOURBRIDGE: Cowley 3 & 82, Anaebonam 33, 45+6 (pen) & 79

Team Line Ups:

ST IVES: Goff, Casey, Herd, Richens (capt), J. Williams, Fox (Toseland 78), Baker (Kaziboni 69), Harris, Edwards, Hottor (Shariff 58), Higgs, Unused subs: Johnson, Johnston 

STOURBRIDGE: Price, Vaughan, Burton (Wilson 46), Prosser, Kettle, Hull, Anaebonam, King (capt), Cowley, Rowe (Gittings 69), Knights (White 77), Unused subs: Worley, Knight

Cards: Yellow:  ST IVES: Fox (54), Harris (90)    STOURBRIDGE: Hull (73), Wilson (81), Prosser (86) 

IVES SUPPORTERS MAN OF THE MATCH: Ed Hottor 

Attendance:  241

Report by Nigel Howlett. Interview by andrew Dunn. Video by Ollie Jones. Photos by Louise Thompson.