Bromsgrove Rovers (0) 0 Hednesford Town (3) 3

BROMSGROVE Rovers' difficult pre-season programme suffered another set back at the Victoria Ground, as a slick Hednesford Town side beat them last Saturday (July 16).

Like the defeat to Kidderminster Harriers three days before Rovers never recovered from slow start, which allowed their rivals to streak into a commanding 3-0 lead by the end of the first half.

Rovers boss Jimmy Mullen handed starts to right back Neil Ecclestone, midfielder Scott Hadland and striker Matthew Barnes-Homer, before making sweeping changes at half time.

In contrast Town manager Chris Brindley only had to cope with the absence of Rovers' top scorer for the last two seasons, Paul Szewczyk, who pulled out of an immediate return to his former side because of an injury.

Barnes-Homer spearheaded Rovers' first attack in the third minute, when he drove into the Town box, but he shot across the goal.

Poor marking by the home side allowed winger Colin Hunter to open the scoring three minutes later. His incisive diagonal run caught out Rovers' defence and he slipped the ball under goalkeeper Lee Evans.

Evans made up for conceding the goal in the 17th minute, when he tipped over Paul McMahon's shot. From the resulting corner Evans then athletically tipped over Tom Marshall's bullet header.

Chris Smith doubled the visitors' lead when he latched onto McMahon's ball over the top on the half-hour mark. While Rovers' defence played for offside the former Rovers striker placed the ball under Evans.

Rovers pushed for a goal, but were hit on the break in the 39th minute. Courtney Shaw gave the ball away on the edge of Hednesford's box and Smith latched onto a long ball forward. The striker held off Joe Williams and made it 3-0.

Mullen made a host of changes at the break, bringing on Delton Francis, Leon Mitchell, Phil Male, Carl Adams, Martin Ruddock, Riad Erraji and Jon Daniels.

The changes brought an improvement for the home side, who forced Town back into their own half for much of the game.

But they could not convert half chances, with Adams and Ruddock blazing wide from long range. Francis had the best chances, hooking Erraji's corner over in the 69th minute and with three minutes left heading the midfielder's cross agonisingly wide at the far post.

Rovers: Evans, Ecclestone (Johnson, 45mins), Hillman (Male, 45mins), Williams (Ruddock, 45mins), Collins (Gardiner 44mins), Hadland (Adams, 45mins), Benbow (Daniels, 45mins), Dyer (Erraji, 45mins), Barnes-Homer (Francis, 45mins), Blakemore (Mitchell, 45mins), Banner (Shaw, 25mins).

Hednesford: Whittle, Adams, Branch, Marshall, Teesdale (Woodhead), Williams (Beckett), Barrett (Biddle), Heath, McMahon (Brindley), Smith, Hunter.