BROMSGROVE started their 2005 Coaching Solutions West Midlands Division One season in fine style on Saturday when they beat a strong West Brom side 4-1.

In fact, skipper Julian Court described his team's performance as 'the best he could remember'.

The Boars relied on their superior skill and physical fitness to beat West Brom. The game was a tense encounter to start with and neither side managed to break the deadlock in the first half.

West Brom's players started to tire as the second half wore on and Bromsgrove capitalised on this by taking the lead not long after the break when Pete Hall scored from a short corner.

However, slightly against the run of play, West Brom managed to equalise from a short corner of their own.

But it was not long until the Boars restored their advantage, and it was a familiar story as Hall netted again from a short corner to make it 2-1. By this stage West Brom were a spent force and the Boars dominated the remainder of the game.

Paul Yates made it 3-1 when he converted yet another short corner and Mark Robinson rounded off the scoring as they game wore on.

Court said: "Our application and attitude was very good and so was our passing, which altogether resulted in a great win to start of the season.

"We went about the game really well which was impressive.

"We had a big team meeting on Thursday night when we outlined exactly how we wanted to take the game to West Brom and we implemented that plan on Saturday which was very pleasing.

"If we can continue to play like that for the rest of the season we can do really well - our mental approach was very good.

"If we can keep playing like that there is no reason why we cannot be challenging for the title at the end of the season."

l The 2nd XI were away at West Brom and were unlucky to lose 2-1.

The hosts took the lead in the final minute of the first half. In the second half Bromsgrove started brightly again, but it was West Brom who extended their lead to 2-0. Bromsgrove eventually scored through Ali Shaw.

Captain Steve Gill said: "I think the difference came in the number of short corners. We won just two in the entire game and scored from one and almost did from the other."