Match Report
Bromsgrove Sporting v St Ives Town
Pitching-In Southern League Premier Central 06-09-2025
Both sides went into this game a little low in confidence after inconsistent early results and both came off the back of early FA Cup exits the previous Saturday.
In the week up to the game the Rouslers looked to lift things and get themselves into winning ways by bringing in new assistant manager Richard Batchelor, experienced defender Aaron Roberts and young loanee from Premier League Aston Villa Charlie Pavey. Ives made one addition to their squad with the return of last season’s successful loan signing of George Munday from Cambridge United.
By the end of the afternoon there was only one side celebrating as Ives came up with the goods with an impressive display that lead to an emphatic victory. But it was not Munday leading Ives line as the U’s have currently got him on restricted time as he recovers from injury. The man who made a massive impression and caused Rouslers defence problems all afternoon was the man making his first competitive start for the visitors Jamal Adams.
The hosts enjoyed a good first ten minutes without testing their former keeper Ollie Taylor. The closest that they came in their best spell of the game was when Pavey almost escaped Jordan Williams 35 yards from goal forcing the Ives centre back to bring him down to pick up his third yellow card of the season in eighth minute. But Jack Kelly fired the resulting free kick straight into the visitor’s three man wall.
The air was really taken out of the hosts sails when Ives took the lead from their first meaningful attack in twelfth minute. Liam Cross got down the right and his deep cross was met cleanly on the volley by Jernade Meade who was unlucky to see the shot deflect wide. But the visitors were not to be denied for long as they took the lead from the resulting corner. Meade’s first attempted delivery was knocked back to him and he cleverly delivered to the back post where the ball was knocked down to the feet of Adams near the penalty spot. His shot on the turn was blocked but the ball ricocheted to Duncan Idehen who calmly teed up Ethan Creary to slot past Adam Harrison from eight yards.
From that point Ives got on top. The powerful midfield duo of Gibou Njie and skipper Michael Richens were winning the midfield battle and four minutes later the pair combined well before Richens curled an inch perfect pass into the well timed run of Liam Cross cutting in from the right. The speedy wide man took one touch to many allowing Harrison to close him down and the keeper made a brave block.
Midway through the half it was Idehen’s turn to roam forward and he was allowed to probe deep into Rouslers territory before feeding Adams 25 yards out. The powerful strikers low curling effort forced Harrison into a diving save low to his left.
Ives carved out another chance in 32nd minute when Theo Alexandrou did well to keep alive Cross’s deep ball from the right. The young striker cut inside along the edge of the box before firing his powerful right footer well over. Adams forced another save out of Harrison sixty seconds later when he won the ball off Roberts before storming forward and unleashing a screamer from a narrow angle that rebounded to safety off the body of keeper Harrison.
The hosts felt a little hard done by at Ives second goal which arrived seven minutes before the break. Kelly’s deep corner from the left had arrived at the feet of Aksum White beyond the far post and as he tried to step inside to get a shot away he went down under challenge from Jiah Medrano. The hosts appeals for a spot kick were turned down and to add insult to injury for the struggling hosts Adams won a foot race at the other end to latch onto the clearance and fire past Harrison from just inside the box to double the advantage.
Both sides made changes at the break with Ives manager Ricky Marheineke forced into replacing the limping Medrano with Matty Miles at left back and Rouslers Scott Adey-Linforth making two changes in a desperate bid to find a route back into the game replacing White and Bo Morris with Koby Arthur and Josh Ezewele.
Before those changes had bedded in Ives effectively killed off the game with a third scored in unexpected fashion and one that may haunt keeper Harrison for a while. A 51st minute long ball down the park held up on the breeze bouncing just outside the box. Harrison hesitated but was still a massive favourite to claim the ball with the smallest player on the park Meade chasing it. But somehow the spring heeled Meade outjumped the keeper and headed the ball past him before gleefully thumping it into the empty net.
Adams was still causing problems to the hosts defender’s and he fired another screamer across the face of goal after Meade had won the ball back high up the park in 58th minute. Three minutes later Richens beat Harrison with a 35 yard free kick that thumped the crossbar and rebounded to safety. Harrison perhaps got a little way back into his manager’s good books in 63rd minute when he was quick to come off his line to close Cross and block an effort from just inside the box with his legs that chance being carved out by good work from Alexandrou.
A game which was drifting towards a comfortable Ives victory then exploded into the wrong sort of action in 69th minute. Tom Edge slid in recklessly on Njie right in front of the dugouts much to the chagrin of manager Marheineke. A brief mele ensued between players that ended with Edge and Kelly picking up yellow cards for the hosts and Richens picking up one for Ives. Unfortunately Marheineke was unable to control himself and continued to fire abuse at Edge even as referee Thomas Wall was waving the card in front of the miscreant. The ultimate result being that referee Wall then despatched Marheineke to the grandstand for the rest of the game.
After things settled down the hosts began to make some minor inroads into Ives otherwise very solid back line. Billy Shaw created an excellent opportunity for Arthur to pull one back in 75th minute. But the Rouslers substitute could only side foot his effort from by the penalty spot wide of Taylor’s left hand post.
It still looked more likely that Ives would add to their advantage rather than their hosts reduce the arrears. There were ten minutes to go when Williams got on the end of Meade’s deep corner from the right but failed to hit the target.
Taylor’s only save of the afternoon came two minutes into added time. Gustavo Sanches was brought down by substitute Amir Hadi 25 yards from goal. Kelly curled his well struck effort over Ives four man wall but the Ives custodian showed that he had stayed alert as he hurled himself full length to his left to turn the effort around the post.
Two minutes later and Hadi had his moment at the right end of the park as he fired home number four to complete a fantastic afternoon for the visitors. The chance was created by a battling run from Alexandrou who drew in defenders before picking out Hadi twelve yards out. A turn and shot found the bottom corner to put the icing on the cake.
There was still time for young substitute Alfie Shepherd to show a little of his quality with a speedy break down the right that was finished with a low driven cross that Hadi looked certain to turn home at the back post until Sanches did just enough to take it off his toe.
The result moves Ives up into a mid-table position with Rouslers anchored in the bottom four. Both have midweek fixtures to follow Ives will want to take this form into Monday night’s game at quattro tech Westwood Road against AFC Sudbury whist the Rouslers will be keen to kick start their season as they host Banbury United.
Final Score: Bromsgrove Sporting 0 St Ives Town 4 Half Time 0 – 2
Goals:
BROMSGROVE:
ST IVES: Creary 12, Adams 38, Meade 51, Hadi 90+4
Team Line Ups:
BROMSGROVE: Harrison, Kelly, Roberts, Carter (capt), Shaw, Edge, Clayton-Phillips, White (Arthur 46), Morris (Ezewel 46), Pavey (Critchlow 63), Hall (Sanches 63), Unused subs: Softley
ST IVES: Taylor, Creary, Medrano (Miles 46), Richens (capt), Williams, Idehen, Adams (Chong 82), Cross (Shepherd 90+2), Njie (Hadi 73), Meade, Alexandrou, Unused subs: Munday
Referee: Thomas Wall
Cards: Red: ST IVES: Marheineke (70)
Yellow: BROMSGROVE: Shaw (64), Edge (70), Kelly (71) ST IVES: Williams (8), Richens (69)
IVES SUPPORTERS MAN OF THE MATCH: Jernade Meade
Attendance: 561