Saturday, July 22, 2006

SEVEN days after Des Lyttle saw red, the red mist descended on City boss Andy Preece on Saturday.

Preece stomped 60 yards down the touchline to admonish Badsey referee Paul Sparrow in the later stages of a feisty friendly.

Moments earlier, the official had to separate Tom Warmer and Mark Wolsey, threatening the Worcester man with an early return to the dressing room before Preece's angry confrontation.

"Get a grip or I will take my players off," a finger-wagging manager threatened.

The St George's Lane chief would have been even angrier at the final whistle had Mark Owen not spurned a glorious chance in injury-time to deny his former club a victory.

Preece's 11 starters had earned the visitors a 2-0 lead inside 25 minutes courtesy of Adam Webster's 15th-minute strike and a similarly clinical finish from the marauding Jay Sztybel.

Sztybel, an 18-year-old wide player born in Redditch, has been released by Walsall.

Sandwiched between the goals, Darren Knurek, loaned out by the hosts for the afternoon due to injuries to James Coates and Danny McDonnell, had saved Richard Ball's tame spot-kick after a handball by Danny Hodnett.

And the spot-kick suffering was repeated at the other end on the half-hour when Webster's kick was kept out by the legs of Nathan Vaughan after Steve Lutz had felled Adam Wooton.

Evesham halved the deficit three minutes before the break when Lutz headed in a long ball from Nathan Jukes.

The scorer and Owen then saw goalbound efforts deflected wide as the City goal was put under pressure.

Nine new faces in the green and yellow away strip awaited the Robins after the break with Troy Wood the only City player to last the full 90 minutes.

Craig Wilding struck a post soon after the match had restarted in teeming rain but sloppy marking at the opposite end allowed Ball to pick out Leon Blake 10 yards out but Knurek wasn't tested.

The 'keeper, though, was left splashing around when Owen shot on the turn but the ball skidded inches wide before Knurek made way for youth teamer Ashley Horton with 25 minutes left on the clock.

Owen raced clear 10 minutes later only to shoot wide before the game threatened to boil over as the tackles flew in on the saturated surface.

Horton saved comfortably from Lutz, Lee Tomkins fired over from six yards after good work from brother Richard, while Mark Shepherd's late half-volley at the end of the best move of the match flashed a foot wide.

More dodgy defending allowed Owen one final opportunity to deny Worcester their win at the end of a game when Preece's full-time assertion that the referee had "totally lost control" could well have been directed at his own players.

Evesham (starting line-up): Vaughan, A Smith, O'Sullivan, Jukes, Hands, Burrow, L Blake, Ball, Owen, Lutz, Pinkney.

Worcester (starting line-up): Knurek, Sztybel, Watkins, C Smith, Khan, Hodnett, Stanley, Colley, Wood, Webster, Wotton.

Attendance: 156.