Brackey Town 1 Bromsgrove Rovers 3

SUPER-SUB Matthew Barnes-Homer made a sensational debut to help Rovers brush aside brittle Brackley and maintain their chances of automatic promotion from the Southern League Division One West on Saturday.

The teenager, aged 19, replaced lacklustre Arthur Appleton in the second half and lit up a tense affair with a well taken goal, before setting up Paul Szewczyk.

Before the jet-heeled striker's arrival Rovers had been holding onto a 1-0 lead after Kevin Banner opened the scoring in the fifth minute.

Szewczyk started the flowing move for the opening goal when he set Mark Benbow free down the right wing.

Fierce

The striker miss-controlled the midfielder's well judged cross, but it fell to Banner, whose fierce strike cannoned off a defender and into the back of the net.

Riad Erraji had two shots blocked in the seventh minute after captain Steve Hillman drove into the box and sent in a low cross.

Szewczyk was guilty of shooting wide from Banner's 20th minute corner after some neat control and turn in the box.

Appleton then blazed over from a good position after Szewczyk had skipped past the defence and slipped a ball into his strike partner's path.

Rovers started the second half nervously with a small lead to defend, but neither side seemed capable of scoring until manager Jimmy Mullen brought -on Barnes-Homer in the 61st minute.

Debut

And the forward marked his debut with a well-taken goal in the 63rd minute.

He collected Szewczyk's incisive pass and sped past Brackley's defence to let rip with a powerful shot to make it 2-0.

Barnes-Homer turned provider in the 69th minute when hard working Szewczyk headed in his accurate cross from the left.

Despite defender Jack King grabbing a consolation effort late on for Brackley it could not steal Rovers', and Barnes-Homer's, thunder.

Rovers: Lowe 6, Johnson 7, Hillman 8, Collins 7, Male 7, Broadhurst 6 (Frost, 78mins, 6), Benbow 6, Erraji 7, Szewczyk 8 (Mitchell, 85mins, 6), Appleton 5 (Barnes-Homer, 66mins, 8), Banner 7.

Referee: Mr Will Ramsay.

Attendance: 261.

By Peter McKinney