Telford dig in to secure a share of the spoils

Visiting Barton provided the opposition in the first match of 2023 and took the lead through a penalty stroke.

Telford rallied and levelled from a short corner through Tom Mallet. whose drag flick straight gave the no chance.

Barton found themselves ahead again, after full-back Sunny Sahota received a green card for a bad challenge. The goal came via a mis-control from Callum Stacey that found its way through Neil Davies’ legs, barely going over the line.

More green cards came as the game became scrappy. But Telford found themselves level once again when Noah Higginson tapped the ball in at the back post after a well worked attack.

Telford travel to Boots 1 on Saturday.

The Men’s third XI played straight after our 1’s, facing Finchfield 3’s. A strong 16 man squad met them, and got themselves off the mark quickly. With barely 3 minutes on the clock, Ben Stevens’ wide shot was turned into the goal by a defender, with Stevens being the last attacker to touch the ball in the ‘D’ therefore claiming the goal for his 5th of the season. Finchfield quickly equalised, with an attack worked around Telford’s defence, leaving the attacker to tap the ball in past goalkeeper Dom Pritchard. Striker Tom Jones got himself on the scoresheet, with a penalty corner strike smashed into the bottom corner, with the assist going to Roman Randell for winning the short corner. Jones got his second goal in the second half, with another short corner strike leaving the goalkeeper no chance. Telford added their fourth, with another penalty corner

routine. This time, Jon “Moet” Woodrow injected to Jones, who hit the ball back to Moet, whose small flick found its way into the goal, leaving the Finchfield defence speechless. A 4-1 win leaves the third team 4th in their league, 4 points behind 2nd, before travelling away to Leek 3’s next weekend.

The 5th Mens team travelled away to Bloxwich to face their development side. John Higginson got the team rolling with his first goal of the season, scoring from a penalty corner with a reverse chip over everyone, before youngster Jack Lamb set up fellow junior Sam Langford to score his senior first goal. Lamb sprinted down the right flank, crossing the ball in at the by-line, finding Langford who made a neat finish into the bottom left corner of the goal. Goalkeeper Alex Ward was awarded Man of the Match, with plenty of top class saves earning a 5th clean sheet of the season for himself and his defence, as well as a great penalty flick save. Next week, the 5ths travel away to Old Wulfs 4’s for a tough away fixture.

Telford’s Ladies 2nd XI travelled to Burton’s 2’s with only the bare eleven players. A hard fought game resulted in a 1-0 win for Telford, with Captain Sue Hughes grabbing her 5th goal of the campaign. Despite playing the entire second half with only 10 players on the pitch, Telford kept the home side out, keeping their 6th clean sheet of the season, leaving them third on 21 points, before a tough early away fixture, a 10am pushback at Leek.

On Sunday, the Men’s Over 40’s team faced a strong Sutton Coldfield side in their Tier 2 Round 1 game. Tom Lauder got the first goal for Telford, scoring from close range early in the first quarter. Telford’s strong defence kept Sutton at bay, before sealing the win when forward Dave Seaton was on hand to divert the ball home from close range. Next up for the Over40’s team is a trip to Burton in the Last 16 of the competition.